The Phoenix and the Rose
by Sincshift
Summary: Zaine is no ordinary teenager-in fact, he isn't a teenager at all. He's not human, nor faunas, but belongs to a forgotten race. He is the last phoenix. Forced to seal the power he used to fight evil, a fateful encounter changes him forever. Keeping his past and power secret, Zaine is forced to enroll in Beacon Academy, in a spin-off of the RWBY series...
1. CH 1: The Phoenix and the Rose

Prologue

 _I'm awake… but where am I? Who am I? Zaine—that's my name; I know that much. I'm on Earth, no, Remnant… but what's my purpose? Why am I here?_ That question is what I have yet to answer. This is how my life always starts; it's how each chapter begins—I just never realize it at the time. As I go on, things start to come back to me… memories that don't feel like my own, but they are. I've lived many lives—how many? I don't know for certain. A fire burns inside me and around me. I have strength and fortitude in both body and soul. However, despite having this power, I am empty. I am alone. I am the last phoenix.

One can have all the power in the world but still be empty. As a phoenix, I have a multitude of abilities. I can create and manipulate fire, I can see heat with thermal vision, I have increased strength, and even flaming wings which I can call upon—but no, I am not a bird; a flaming falcon (a traditional phoenix) is just my symbol.

However, every time I use my power, I lose part of myself, like the burning of a candle. Part of being a phoenix is the acceptance of ideals. Over time, every phoenix must find ideals through living many lives and awaken their power through those ideals. Here I am, the last of my kind… How? Rage… lust for power, a seed of darkness to end a war…It wouldn't be long until I succumbed to this rage myself.

In an attempt to keep this from happening, I sealed my powers within a sword: the Shishanikko. This sword has been with me so long, I can't even remember how I got it—it's as if it has always been there. Every time I awaken, I have it. If I ever try to abandon it or hide it, it just reappears in its sheath on my back. The Shishanikko is a divine sword of bravery and light… is it a message that I could be the one to choose such ideals over rage? Either way, a sword can't change who I am, and once I awaken, there is no going back. I had put it off for so long that I was the last phoenix… Or so I thought… everything was about to change.

CH 1: The Phoenix and the Rose

Another night spent waiting… waiting for a robbery that might never come. I was getting sick of waiting at this point, but I had a mission. I managed to discover evidence that the world may be in danger of an ancient evil—and even though I didn't know the details, I felt compelled to do something about it. This world might not feel like home, but it's where I'm living now, and I think it's worth saving. I'm not a bad person—I might be reckless and angry at times, but for some reason I feel compelled to help others.

Although I didn't always know it, there was always something driving me. One thing for sure was that when it really mattered, I would keep my promises and I would do everything in my power to protect my friends. The problem was that my recklessness and my powers would often put others in danger. That's why I preferred to work alone and didn't socialize very much. Besides, how would someone react if they found out I was secretly an eternal being of flame? Yea, I hated lying sometimes but it often seemed a lot more reasonable than the alternative.

As far as my mission goes, someone was after dust—a lot of it—to the point where they were stealing it from all over the place. I had a bad feeling about this, so I decided to do something about it. Every time a shipment of dust arrived, it was attacked. It got to the point where the dust company shipping the goods (the Schnee Dust Company) got smart and started separating cargo over multiple shipments or even sending decoy ships. I've been doing my best to be a thorn in the side of the thugs responsible, trying at best to slow down their plans and gather information about how to stop it. Regardless of what I'm capable of, there's only so much I can do alone.

Well, I'm not completely alone. There's always Al. Al's pretty much the only support I've ever had—at least the only one who hasn't tried to stab me in the back. He doesn't look like it, but he's a tech genius. He looks a lot more like a championship kickboxer than a tech nerd, depending on the country you come from; I mean, he has dark skin, a huge athletic build, wears a polo and khakis—scratch that last one. Regardless of what he looks like, he's a genius and he prefers building tech and finding information over actual combat. That's perfectly fine with me because I've always preferred to tackle combat alone, and for the longest time, do everything alone.

Tonight, however, I was about to go on a mission unlike any other. I was finally about to meet the person who would change my life for the first time. Despite how hard I tried to get away, fate would make sure that it definitely wasn't the last. One thing's for certain. Everything that was about to happen… it would change not just this life—it would change me… forever.

The buildings on the pier were perfect cover. It still confused me why a port for shipping goods was located so close to a carnival pier, but I couldn't complain because it made concealing myself much easier than normal. The shipment I was staking out wasn't too big, probably only enough to stock a single shop, but it was enough that it was likely to be attacked. The ship that was supposed to be carrying the dust had arrived, but so far, no attack.

 _Any second now…_ I thought, _they're gonna start unloading dust._ There were still a few people left in the pier—that's what really worried me. I was not looking forward to some dumb kids who were up too late getting involved. The funny part about it is that would be my cover if I was spotted, and if my midnight black cloak and hood weren't enough. The cloak was stitched with shadow dust, making it pretty much impossible to make out my face as long as it was down. The rest of my outfit was also dark: dark black jeans and a black shirt. The shirt had highlighted creases that made out the shape of flames, but they only lit up when I activated my powers. If you're wondering why, it wasn't my idea, it was Al's.

Throughout everything I've done so far, I've made sure to stay low key. Al told me that if I kept wearing so much black, I'd look too much like an emo kid. During the day I wear more red and orange, but no matter what color I wear, I still hate being called a kid. I have the skills and knowledge of an adult, but when I woke up, my body was 15. It was about 16 at this point, as far as I could tell, but it doesn't matter. Strength doesn't come from age. As adult as I feel at times, I can still act pretty immature. However, when I put on my cloak and especially when I activated my powers, there would be no time for fun and games. Fire is dangerous, and I didn't want to get the wrong people burned.

*CRASH!* There it was! I prepared for action, but then something made me hesitate. The shipment was fine? Then, I turned around and got a surprise. The explosion didn't come from the port—it came from the pier! The pier was being attacked! The real shipment must have been sent ahead of schedule and stored in the pier—the perfect cover. But how did the enemy find out about it when I didn't? Going from rooftop to rooftop, I approached. I checked my texts—Al had just notified me. _Yea, thanks a ton, Al. Just in the nick of time_ , I thought sarcastically.

Now I was but a leap away from the scene, and I prepared to attack—but… A bystander was there! It was a girl wearing a red cape with a hood. She seemed about my age. She had no idea what kind of trouble she was getting herself into. One of the thugs was approaching her. She hadn't even been paying attention to what was going on—she was too busy listening to music.

I didn't like being the hero, but sometimes I had to. It's not that I don't like helping people—that was the whole purpose of stopping these criminals, but it was because I didn't want the attention. Saving people is a great way to get noticed, especially by the people you saved. _Am I really going to have save her now?_ I thought. But, the immediate answer was no. As soon as the thug got rough with her, he knocked something out of her hands. It was hard to tell what it was from here, but it looked like… a sundae—with strawberries. This made her really mad, and my jaw nearly dropped when I saw what happened next.

In the blink of an eye, the thug was sent flying! She had also pulled a huge scythe out of nowhere and a fight was ensuing. That was no ordinary girl! For a minute I was just watching the show. Those thugs didn't stand a chance. _Is she going to stop this entire robbery on her own? That's my job!_ I thought, surprised. She might have caused a lot of trouble, but it wasn't clean, and this time, the boss was there: Roman Torchwick… one of the worst of the worst.

After the last thug fell in front of him, Roman muttered, "Well, you were worth every cent, truly you were."

He threw down his cigar and snuffed it out. Some other thugs were still gathering dust crystals in the back, so Roman decided to buy some time. He snapped his fingers and whistled. Out of nowhere, this massive guy came over. He dropped the rest of something he was eating—he had picked up the sundae that was lying on the ground. _What a pig_ I thought. I could hear the girl sneering angrily.

"Reginald, buddy, mind disposing of this rotten little flower for me?" Roman asked him.

"No problem. It'll be fun," he responded.

"Thanks a lot pal."

"I'm nobody's buddy or pal, not anymore."

He rushed forward, wielding a wicked looking mace that he was keeping on his back. Given his size, he was surprisingly fast. The girl may have been fast too, but she couldn't get a hit in and was barely dodging his swings. As soon as he started fighting her, she was in trouble. He finally landed a hit on her, sending her reeling. She managed to catch herself on one of the posts sticking out of the pier with her scythe, but as she got up, the big guy rushed in for another blow.

It was about time I did something. _Just don't lose control…_ I told myself as I chose the perfect moment to join the action. I dashed forward to get momentum, knowing I'd need it to match the power of that mace. Activating my semblance, I teleported and drew my sword. I placed myself in the most advantageous position—right in-between them...

*CLANG!* There was a huge blast of wind as I appeared in a sheath of flame and drew my sword, colliding it with his mace. I was barely able to knock it back even with all the momentum I had. Looks like I just blocked a pretty dangerous blow. _Guess I ended up saving her after all_. I felt my feet sink a bit as the wood I stood on cracked. I wasn't going to let up. As he reeled back, I attacked. Blow after blow, he managed to block. But he couldn't block my fire. As soon as I found an opening, I launched a blast of fire at him. It only streaked him, but at this point he knew he was outmatched.

"Like to play with fire huh?" he asked me.

"I don't play," I said.

"One of my best friends died in a fire. This one's for him!"

With that, his mace transformed. Curved blades sprouted out from it and it lit up. It started to spin and he came at me again. Despite seeming like all brawn and no brains, his battle technique was impressive. The more he spun his weapon, the more energy it created. It also covered a wide area around him—it was an attack and a defensive measure at the same time. I could barely keep up with how fast the mace was spinning. Electricity surrounded it and energy came out with every swing, resulting in chip damage. I was chipping at him myself with more fire blasts, but neither me nor my fire could get very close. The girl, noticing this, made a move to flank him.

 _I can't get too trigger happy with fire now_ I thought. I already had to worry about accidentally setting the pier on fire, and now I had an 'ally' to worry about not hitting as well. This is exactly why I prefer to fight alone. I was also worried about falling into the water. A lot of his missed swings were damaging the pier, leaving openings into the water below, and one thing I really hated was getting wet.

The girl's flank didn't do much good, as the back-swing of one of the blades coming out of the mace hooked her scythe and flung her back. She landed on her feet and proceeded to plant her scythe in the ground and start firing from it like a sniper rifle. The shots just bounced off—there was some sort of electrical field around him keeping out projectiles.

 _That must be why I couldn't get close eithe_ r I thought, _That's it! His mace uses electricity; maybe he is all brawn and no brains after all. I mean, who brings an electrical weapon to fight on a pier?_ I was about to make him pay for his mistake. I just had to make sure this girl didn't get in the way.

"Stay back!" I yelled out. I made sure to disguise my voice, using heat distortion.

"What about you? Who are you exactly?" She responded.

"Doesn't matter. Take care of the thugs. I can handle this one."

While she was still at a distance, I made my move. I stood right in the area with the most holes where the pier looked weak and then, I turned to the enemy. I had to lure him in, and the number one way to cause people to make reckless mistakes is by making them mad.

"So meathead, you gonna let a couple of kids mess with you that easy, huh? You're not hitting anything with that oversized yoyo, but I'm sure that friend of yours is having fun watching you fail from hell," I called out condescendingly.

"Shut up you bastard!" He yelled back, "You don't know anything!"

Ignoring his comment, I responded, "What, you think the fire down there is any worse than mine? Why don't you come find out, porky. Or are you too afraid I'll barbeque your fat bacon ass?"

"GRRRAAH!"

I clearly succeeded in pissing him off, and he came rushing after me. He lifted his mess of a weapon in a massive overhead swing, which was admittedly incredibly fast. The blades from the mace reached out and extended, in a way that would trap most people-but not me. I dipped back and teleported just a few feet-enough so that I'd avoid his trap without him knowing that I teleported. His mace shattered the pier, leaving a gaping hole. The whole thing was creaking and it wouldn't be long until it collapsed. I kept it up, making sure I was standing on another weak point in the pier.

"Missed me you loaf! What did you train for? Fighting, or ballet?"

"RAAAAHHH!"

This time he came down like a meteor with a massive blow that sent splinters of pier flying everywhere. It was finally too much for it to take and the entire section of pier we were standing on collapsed. I jumped up, propelling myself with fire and landed on the roof of one of the nearby buildings on the pier. I watched as he tumbled into the water and got zapped by his own weapon. The bigger they are, the harder they fall (I apologize for the cliché).

I immediately glanced over to see that Roman was at the edge of the pier. I confronted him—the girl wasn't too far behind. I didn't even notice that there was another civilian on the pier—who was just watching.

"Well, Red… and Black, we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd like to stick around, I'm afraid this is where we part ways." As he spoke, he pointed his cane at us and a flare fired right at us.

We had to dive to either side to avoid it and after the blast Roman was gone. We looked around. Using my thermal vision, I managed to spot him up the side of a building on the mainland not too far from the pier.

"Up there!" She pointed him out. _How did she spot him so fast?_ I thought, considering that I had to use a power to spot him just as quickly. "Think we should go after him?" She asked me.

I nodded. "But first we've got company to deal with."

The remaining thugs had surrounded us and were blocking our path from all sides. Meanwhile, Roman was escaping with the dust.

"I've got a plan. But you're going to have to trust me," I said. What was I doing? I knew that if I was in her position, I'd never trust a stranger in battle.

"Alright, just do something!" I was surprised how quickly she agreed.

"Ok, jump!" I told her as I began charging energy.

"Jump? Here?" she asked.

"Anywhere, just jump! Now!"

At the last second, she leapt into the air, firing her weapon below her. At the same time, I unleashed all the energy that I could in a ring of fire that burst out of me in all directions. The thugs were blown back and scattered. Some of them even caught fire and dove off the pier and into the water in a panic. I would have found it pretty funny if I wasn't so worried about where the girl was going to land. As I looked around, she landed right next to me. _Exactly how high did she jump?_

"We've got to catch up to him somehow," I said as I began running toward the building.

She grinned and immediately darted past me, towards the building, firing her weapon behind her. _That speed…!_ I kept up as best as I could, propelling myself with fire. Something about this seemed incredibly familiar…

By the time I caught up with her, Roman had already gotten into an airship.

"End of the line, Red!" he yelled out as threw a red dust crystal on the ground in front of her.

At the same time, he fired a flare. I already knew what was going to happen. I dashed in front of her, ready to take the hit. I was naturally resistant to fire, so it wouldn't hurt that bad, right? …Right? But before it hit me, someone else got in front of us. When the smoke cleared, there was a woman with a wand standing in front of us who had shielded the blast. It was the huntress Glynda Goodwitch, a professor of Beacon Academy! Another figure appeared in the airship standing in front of the open side door. She was immediately locked in combat with Glynda, firing blasts of flame. There were a series of clashes between Glynda's telekinetic blasts and the mysterious women's fire. She made explosions beneath our feet that we could barely avoid.

 _Amateur_ , I thought as I prepared a blast of my own. More explosions erupted beneath us, but this time, I didn't move. Instead, I responded with my own blast. But whoever she was, I underestimated her. The blast wasn't intended to harm me. Instead, it created a shockwave and kicked up dust, enough so that I lost my focus and got knocked back. The blast I fired only grazed the ship and when the smoke cleared, the ship was too far away and they had escaped. I wasn't interested in getting recognized, especially by anyone of importance, so I decided to disappear. As I started to slip away, the girl called out to me.

"Wait!" Something compelled me to look back, and then, I got a good look at her face. She definitely looked incredibly familiar (and I'll admit, pretty cute too).

My voice activated before I could stop it "…Rose?" Of all the things for me to say…

"Huh, how do you know my name? Who are you?"

 _I know her name? How?! Where did this come from?!_ My mind was racing at this point and Glynda was starting to catch on to our conversation.

"I don't know…" I had to ward her off. "Don't get involved with someone like me! You'll only get burned." I created a smokescreen and teleported away, despite hearing her voice behind me.

"Wait! I just wanted to say thank you…"

It was for the best… or was it? Regardless, I ran.

End of CH 1


	2. CH 2: First Impressions

CH 2: First Impressions

…. Several Weeks Later ….

 _Well, I'm finally here_ , I thought as I stared out the window of the airship. I had just arrived at a place I never thought I'd visit: Beacon Academy. I like to steer clear of important places like this, but necessity deemed otherwise. Looks like I'll be officially becoming a huntsman.

I'd made all the money I needed (which isn't that much) by working for Al and some other more questionable employers so the reason isn't for career. I had reason to believe that the enemy might be targeting Beacon, the other schools being soon to follow. I wasn't exactly sure why and I wasn't exactly sure who the real enemy was. In fact, most of what I knew was a hunch based on random things I had been remembering... but if they really wanted to target it, the best way to be ready for it was to be on the inside.

On the other hand, I was thinking that an education on combat and aura would do me some good—it might even help me restore some of my memories. Al had been bugging me to do some training for a while anyway. The one thing that concerned me was that I got in late. I missed the deadline, but the headmaster let me in anyway. When I spoke to the headmaster Ozpin for the first time, his response was… concerning to say the least.

"Oh, so what could ever compel you to seek becoming a huntsman?"

Sure, he asks everyone their motivation, but the way he said it… it was as if he knew me from somewhere. It was as if he really wanted me in his school, to the point where he was willing to pull some strings. Did I know him in my last life? He too looked pretty familiar, and of course I'd heard of him in the past couple of years… but how did he recognize me? Also, why did he let me in late? It seems that every encounter I have with Ozpin leaves me with more and more questions.

Anyway, that's not what was really important—the fate of Remnant may very well hang in the balance. I stepped off of the airship, walking gingerly past the guy who was looking sick in the corner. I actually narrowly avoided being puked on as he rushed over to a trash can. I didn't know him yet, so in my head I was thinking, _man, they'll let anyone into this place nowadays, huh?_ Well, I had arrived at Beacon Academy, the place that would be my home for the next few months.

*BANG!* an explosion! Was it an attack? What was going on? I looked around for the source of the blast… turns out it was just someone messing with dust. It looked like an argument was going on between a couple of girls near the entrance. Wait a second… of the three there, two of them looked incredibly familiar… one of them was the same girl from the pier before! How? Was this some sort of stupid coincidence, or…? Well I didn't have to worry because she never saw my face, but she saw my sword.

Either way, I couldn't ever draw my phoenix sword or else it would be game over. My powers were sealed inside of the Shishanikko. If I used it, they'd be unleashed, and I'm pretty sure a guy with flames bursting out of his body and flaming wings would probably come off as pretty unusual. It was also becoming more and more difficult to seal the power each time I used it—I was approaching my tipping point. I would store it somewhere to relieve the temptation of using it, but the damn thing won't leave me alone. Unfortunately I hadn't exactly thought that through, so I was a bit short on weapons. Looks like I'd be relying on my trusty boomerang for a while.

I tried not to make eye contact with anyone—I'm not technically undercover, it's just that I wasn't interested in—*SLAM* I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Whatever I crashed into must have been pretty sturdy because I fell right on my ass—probably a wall or a—oh it was a girl… She didn't even flinch! What is it with this world?

"Oh, hello there. Why are you sitting on the ground?" She asked me.

"…because I like dirt," I said sarcastically.

"*giggle* you are quite strange," She said as she helped me up.

"Well, actually I guess I just wasn't looking where I was going. Sorry about that," I said. "By the way, what exactly are you made of? Just curious…" It was a legitimate question.

"Oh, just the usual stuff," She replied.

"Could've fooled me," I said with a grin as I walked away. Turns out the girl I ran into was a world renown fighter, Pyrrha Nikos. Figures.

Awkwardness aside, I managed to get registered and since I had nothing better to do, I did what I do best and climbed onto the roof (I actually teleported, not that I tell anyone that). I thought about using my real name, but decided against it. I wanted to stay low key. I had already told Ozpin that my name was Zaine, so I just changed my last name. I registered as 'Zaine Aggryos' (my real name is Zaine Raye).

While I was on the roof of the tower, I could see a lot of people walking around. Eventually, everyone was inside and registered as they should be except for two... I squinted to see who they were as they walked underneath me when out of nowhere a damn crow landed next to me and squawked… LOUDLY. It might have actually been a raven, but either way, I somehow lost my balance and… pain.

When I came too, there was a very confused dude and a somewhat entertained girl standing over me. Want to take a wild guess as to what girl it was? OF COURSE it was the same one from the pier again. To make things even better, the guy was the same one from the airship who almost threw up on me. _I really need to start learning names for these people. Might as well introduce myself_ , I thought.

"..uh, hi… I'm Zaine. Nice to meet you," I said as I picked myself up.

"Uh, yea… thanks for dropping in. I'm Jaune," Jaune said awkwardly.

"Woah… did you just fall from the sky?" the girl exclaimed.

"Actually I think it was the roof…" Jaune tried to reason, but it was helpless.

"Can you fly or something? By the way I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose." _Now it all made sense… whoever I recognized might have been related to her_ , I thought upon my realization.

"Um… yep, it was the roof. You wouldn't believe the view up there," I replied.

"Told ya," Jaune said.

Ruby gazed up to the top of the tower, looked back to me, back to the tower, then back to me.

"And you're still… breathing? How did you even get up there?"

"Um… that's a cool scythe you got there," I quickly changed the subject.

"Oh, yea this is crescent rose. She's not just a scythe, either," she said as she planted the blade of crescent rose into the ground proudly.

"Woah… also a high impact sniper rifle by the looks of it," I said after giving it a quick look-over.

"Wha—exactly! How did you know?"

"I'm a mechanic. Maybe not the greatest, but I know my weapons when I see them." A _nd I might have already seen it in action..._ I thought.

"That's so cool…"

"Say, what caliber are those bullets?"

"Um… I think it was like fifty something." _Fifty something?! What the hell?! Fifty caliber bullets would be as wide as a quarter! She was joking… right?_ I thought to myself, amazed.

"So, what's that cool looking weapon you've got there?" she asked. I could tell she was pointing at my sword, but I wasn't prepared to explain that one at the moment, so I pulled out my boomerang instead.

"Here it is, my pride and joy."

"Is that a… boomerang?"

"…Yes. Yes it is. It's also segment-able." I pulled it apart into two handheld blade/pistols.

"Yea, that's cool. What about that big swo—"

"So, what have you got Jaune?" I may be socially challenged sometimes, but I'm a master at weaseling my way out of 'unwarranted subjects.' … Ok, not really, I just got lucky this time.

"Um… well, I've got a sword and a shield too," Jaune said, showing me his… generic sword and collapsible shield. I'm still not sure how he made it into Beacon.

"So… you two have registered right?" I asked them.

"Regawhatta?" Jaune croaked.

"Actually, we're kind of… lost." Ruby admitted.

"Oh, well I can show you where to go, my sense of direction is second to none," I stated confidently.

As luck would have it, Pyrrha was the first person who saw me as we entered, and she waved.

"Oh, hello again, guy who runs into people and likes dirt!" _Dammit, really? I totally should have told her my name…_ I thought as I face palmed.

"Actually the name's Zaine!" I called out.

"Second to none, huh?" Ruby said with a grin.

"Hey, I got us here, didn't I? *sigh*"

A voice called out from the crowd, "Hey Ruby! Over here, I saved you a spot!"

"Oh, hey, I gotta go. I'll see you after the ceremony." She said as she ran off.

"Well, I guess I'll see you later…" I said. _Wait a minute… I didn't just make a friend already, did I?_

"Great… Now where am I supposed to find another nice, quirky girl to talk to?" Jaune said after she left.

"I saw this chick with bunny ears a while back that you might—," I started. Jaune's face said it all. My sentence was struck down like a plane that had been hit by a missile. "Want… to-talk to…" I trailed off.

"What exactly do you take me for?" Jaune asked, unamused.

"I don't know, I did kind of just meet you." I responded.

Maybe he thought I was joking, but I was serious. There was a faunus girl walking around who had bunny ears taking pictures of people. After a few moments of awkward silence, I walked away and into the crowd.

What followed was a boring speech from Ozpin and Glynda about becoming huntsmen and huntresses and the challenges we'd face, taking the first step, yada-yada-yada. Next, I went and put my stuff in my locker. We didn't have room assignments yet so everyone just camped out in the ballroom. As soon as I saw Jaune trying to chat with a girl while in his footie pajamas, I considered him a lost cause. Ruby introduced me to her sister, Yang, and I also met a couple of other people. A couple of girls even introduced themselves to me. I had to seriously restrain myself to keep from flirting or something. I just reminded myself why I'm here: _I'm not here to impress anyone. I'm not here to get a date or become some kind of head turning badass. Even in my head that sounded really cocky. I need to focus. I have a mission. Just need to stay low key…_

It was while I was heading to my locker, I ran into Ruby AGAIN, literally too. _Number 99… should be right around this-OOF!_

"Uh, sorry about that—oh hey Ruby."

"Hey Zaine. It's ok, gotta love those deadly corners."

For some reason, that comment made me smile as I opened my locker. Ruby simultaneously opened the locker right next to mine. _Figures._

"So you're number 98, huh?"

"Yep, just short of 100."

"Same. ...Number 99."

I just realized that I didn't really have much gear to put away. I could stick my sword in here, but it probably wouldn't be long until it came back anyway… I really needed to talk to Al about a cloaking device for that thing. I put my boomerang away in the locker anyway and closed it.

"Number 100! Hey Ruby, looks like our lockers are next to each other after all," said the voice of another girl who had long golden hair.

"There you are Yang. Why do you keep ditching me?" Ruby said to her.

"Ruby, it's not ditching, it's leaving you alone so that you can meet people. And it seems to be working just fine, who's this? Is that guy you told me about who fell off the roof?"

"Shh-Yang, what are you talking about? What roof?" And thus, the awkward introduction began.

"Yea, what roof?" I chimed in.

"This is Zaine. And this is my big sister Yang. Yang, Zaine… Zaine, Yang…"

"Hey," was all I really had to say. Honestly, she didn't look like she was related to Ruby at all.

"Hey right back atcha. So Zaine, where do you come from?"

"Uh…" I wasn't entirely sure how to answer this question, so I just instinctively named the place where I first woke up. "I've spent a lot of time in Vale, but I'm originally from this island called Patch."

"No kidding? That's where Ruby and I are from!" _This has to just be another coincidence, right?_ "I'm surprised we've never met before."

"Well, it's a pretty big island."

"Well, it's great to meet another Patchian—Pachender? Er—it's great to meet someone else from Patch. Right, Ruby?" … "Ruby?"

She was fiddling with something in her locker and wasn't really paying attention. I'll be honest, this wasn't exactly the most interesting conversation.

"Not one for awkward small talk, huh?" I asked.

"Uh—no, not really."

"Well, tomorrow we get to let our weapons do the talking. It was nice meeting you Yang, and running into you again, Ruby. I'll see you on the battlefield." With that, I left.

Most people were on the ground floor, but being as antisocial as I am, I made my way to the balcony up top.

I was on the balcony minding my own business, when someone-somehow-came up behind me.  
"The view up here is pretty interesting, huh." I jumped, surprised that I hadn't noticed them sooner.

Despite my powers being sealed, certain passive effects of being a phoenix are always with me. One of them is supposed to be enhanced senses, but ironically, it hardly ever seems that way. After just getting randomly snuck up on, I finally concluded that I must just have incredibly below average senses for a phoenix, and that I may be absent minded at times…

I was right at the edge and nearly fell off, but managed to catch myself and keep my cool. I'd had enough of falling off of things for one day.

"When—how—"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you," she said in what sounded like a bit of an accent—I couldn't tell from where though.

I turned to see the same faunas girl with a camera I had mentioned to Jaune earlier. On top of that, the camera flashed as she took a picture of me. Irony really is a pain, isn't it?

"It's alright, really it is."

"My name's Velvet by the way."

Once again, someone was introducing herself to me, and even after I went out of my way to be… out of the way. To make matters worse, now there was a picture of me out there—well, besides the one I took for registration and the selfie Al took with me a while back—hey, I keep tabs on this kind of stuff, and for good reason.

"I'm Zaine."

"So, Zaine, how exactly did you manage to get up here? I don't remember there being a way up from the ballroom. And isn't this area off limits?"

"Is it? ...And if it is, then, how are you here?"

I cleverly turned the tide of the conversation so that she'd be the one answering a question instead of me. I could tell that the whole 'how did I get here' thing was just a ploy to get me to spill more information about myself; I mean, come one, it's conversation 101.

"Well, I'm not a first year. I'm just here to take pictures."

"Oh—so you're a second—or third—junior or senior?"

"Um… something like that."

"Fair enough. If you don't mind me asking, what are the pictures for?"

"Oh—well, it's just a hobby." I could tell she was hiding something, but I didn't take her for the sick and twisted type. "Would you like to see some of them?"

"Oh, uh, sure, why not."

She showed me several photographs, most of which were from weird angles. A lot even had the faces of people cut off. However, one thing that I found interesting was that there seemed to be a common theme. There was always a weapon in each photo. I figured that either this was a coincidence and she was a terrible photographer or she was just a weapon nerd like Ruby. She got to the picture of me next, which was me turning around with a surprised expression. My back was turned, however, the spot on my back where Shisanikko was supposed to be was just a blotch on the image.

"That's weird… must have been a glitch."

"Yea, a glitch…" I responded, knowing full well what had happened.

This sword had some sort of power that prevented accurate representations of it, including photography, even while within its sheath. It's the reason there's nearly no records of it throughout time.

"Well thanks for sharing that with me. It was interesting," I said as she looked into the lens of her camera, "Oh, and no offense, but, can you not take any more pictures of me?"

"Oh, ok, if that's what you want."

"I'm just not very… photogenic."

"I understand." I had a feeling by her tone that she didn't quite understand.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful, except for a couple of fights that broke out which I found quite entertaining. At one point, it looked like Ruby was about to bite Yang's foot off. I actually was kind of hoping that Velvet had caught a couple pictures of that. Don't ask me why.

End of CH 2


	3. CH 3: Forest Fiasco

CH 3: Emerald Forest Fiasco

Morning came fast, despite the fact that not many people were able to sleep; there are benefits to sleeping in high places, unless you sleepwalk… Anyway, in the morning, I saw Ruby talking to Yang and she said something about needing to mature and learn to work together on teams. As I came to my locker next to Ruby's and grabbed my boomerang, I sarcastically added, "Yea, good luck with that."

I overheard quite a bit of talk about teams, specifically teams of four, so it was only slightly concerning when I counted the number of people lined up for our initiation: 17. Someone was going to be without a team… I would've put my money on Jaune, but I wasn't too thrilled about the whole 'teams' thing myself. Still, it wasn't like they were going to kick anybody out—or maybe they assumed someone would fail and/or die. Yea, probably the last one... Anyway, I wasn't the only one to notice this. Along with several other frantic questions about 'landing strategies,' Jaune was asking Ozpin what would happen to the 17th person. I recall Ozpin saying something like, "We'll figure it out."

As far as landing strategy goes… _WAIT..._ At that moment I was launched into the air. _I can't use my wings—how the heck am I going to land?!_ I thought, not having thought this through. I would teleport, but I'd keep my momentum and I was already falling pretty fast at this point. _The only weapon I brought was my boomerang and the sword I can't use_ , I thought as I began to plummet. To be fair, it wasn't exactly an ordinary boomerang—it had guns and blades and could separate into two smaller weapons.

As far as landing, I fell off of Beacon tower and was fine, so I figured I wouldn't have to worry that much. I braced myself and did my best to break my fall using tree branches in tandem with my boomerang's blades. Once I finally reached the ground… pain. I got up, fixed my arm, which I was pretty sure got dislocated at some point, and looked around. N _obody in my point of view,_ I thought as I scanned the nearby area, _As much as I hate to admit it, I should probably find a teammate._ I ran through the forest dodging grim and looking around, and want to take a wild guess on who the first person I saw was? I had to screech to a halt to stop from crashing into her and…

 _crap, going too fast, going too fast!_ *SLAM!* When I came to, I was on the ground and there was a girl with a scythe on top of me… Just another average day at Beacon.

"Uh… hi. Sorry for running into you again, quite literally this time," I said awkwardly. She just stared at me with a somewhat red face.

"So, need a teammate? Also, I'm pretty sure it would be easier for us to reach the monument if you weren't… you know… on top of me." I was a bit embarrassed myself, but we phoenixes don't show it *cough.*

"Oh… yea sorry…" We got up and I was given a very unpleasant greeting by this girl with a tiara in her hair—the same one who was arguing with Ruby in front of the gate.

"Hey! Can't you watch where you're going? What if you had crashed into me?!" she exclaimed.

"Maybe he'd have knocked some sense into you…" Ruby muttered.

"And who's this charming individual?" I asked sarcastically.

"If you're wondering, my name is Weiss, Weiss Schnee, you know heiress to the Schnee Dust Company."

"And…?" I replied. She didn't look nearly as amused by my sarcasm as Ruby was.

"For your information, we're already a team, so why don't you go crash into somebody else," She replied snarkily. I was not amused.

"Alright, why don't I start with you, princess," I responded angrily. For some reason, she really grinded my gears…

"Is that a threat, boomerang boy?" she snapped back at me.

"Hey, hey, why don't we play nice for now… you know until the next monster shows up," Ruby said, trying to get between our argument.

"Oh, she's already here." I kind of regret that one.

Weiss's face was instantly animated with rage, "EXCUSE ME?!"

"We're doomed," Ruby stated.

Eventually, after quite a bit of dispute, we came to the joint decision to work together, considering that everyone was probably already paired up at this point and there was an extra person (it ended up being me, but I'm still convinced it would have been Jaune if I hadn't wasted so much time arguing with Weiss). I'd say things would have been fine, but a series of unfortunate and unexplainable events combined with bad ideas and shabby teamwork ended up with the three of us holding on for dear life attached to the back of a giant nevermore.

"I told you this was a terrible idea!" Weiss yelled.

"We're fine! Stop worrying!" Ruby replied.

"I am SO far beyond worrying!"

"In a good way?"

"In a BAD way! In a VERY BAD WAY!"

"Will… this DAMN thing STOP KICKING ME!" I yelled out from the back, really not enjoying my position.

"SEE?! TERRIBLE!" Weiss yelled again.

"Well, why don't we just jump?" Ruby replied.

"What are you, Insane?!"

Before we knew it, Ruby was gone.

"Oh, you insufferable little red…"

"Hey Weiss, jumping doesn't seem like that bad of an idea right now!"

"You too! UGH! I'm surrounded by idiots! I swear if you leave me, I'll…"

"Soooorrrryyyy!" I yelled as I fell.

I heard her holler something after me faintly. I couldn't make out exactly what she said, but I imagine it was something like "I HOPE YOU LAND ON OUR STUPID HEAD!" eh, maybe I'm being too generous. Well, it was about time for more pain… *SLAM*

I landed, but I was still moving… _what the, AHHH STINGER!_ I thought frantically as I dove off of the death stalker I had just landed on. _Stinger incoming!_ I rolled left, then right, then I had nowhere to run… but I can teleport, so I blinked out of the way and ended up by the group that had already gathered, that being Yang, Blake, Ren, Nora, and Ruby. Yang was in the middle of a fit so I tried not to make a scene. I just got up and dusted myself off. While everyone else was arguing, Blake was standing next to me and seemed to be interested in my weapon. I couldn't help but feel like I'd seen her someplace before… but I just pushed that thought off, being much more concerned about her comments about my boomerang.

"Is that… a boomerang?" Blake asked.

"Yea, it's my weapon. What about it?" I asked back.

"Oh, nothing… What about that sword on your back?"

"Oh this…" I paused. _Dammit someone else is already catching on_ I thought. "I… I don't need it," I said, trying to sound confident.

"So you're just going to fight with that then?"

"Yea… hey, it's a legitimate weapon!"

"But what if it gets knocked out of the air?"

"Don't be so pessimistic, boomerang always comes back."

Right at that moment, Weiss fell from the sky on top of Jaune and Pyrrha landed in a heap in front of us.

"Great, the gang's all here! Now we can die together." Yang said sarcastically.

"Not if I can help it," Ruby replied with confidence before making a very unwise, direct charge towards the death stalker. Yang and I had to chase after her.

After her attack inevitably failed, she ran back towards us. With 'perfect' timing, the same damn nevermore decided to ruffle its grimy feathers and show up. Literally—feathers were being launched right at us, as projectiles!

Thanks to my semblance, I was able to get ahead of them. Ruby's cape got snagged by a feather, but the grim weren't stopping. The nevermore fired again, aiming another hailstorm of feathers at us. Yang was still behind and Ruby was in no shape to dodge again so I had to spring into action. With my boomerang, I deflected as many as I could, shielding her from the onslaught. As it spun, deflecting feathers, it also fired bullets to deflect others. Unfortunately the unthinkable happened—one of the feathers knocked it out of the air. I missed one too—the one that was perfectly aimed at Ruby!

I teleported into its path, and with no weapon to deflect it I caught it. Time almost seemed to slow down as I braced my feet in the ground and grabbed the incoming feather with both hands in a pincer-like fashion. I leaned back to soften the blow as much as I could, letting my aura absorb the rest. I was sent sliding backwards a fair amount, but stopped short of Ruby, dropping the feather. _Damn that hurt…. But it was awesome,_ I thought as I dropped the feather on the ground.  
"Nice catch," Ruby said, still a bit surprised.

"Uh thanks, I mean I do occasionally-"

"Behind-!" *SLAM* a set of claws knocked me off my feet right when I was about to mention this really cool thing I can do with my boomerang. "You…" Ruby finished as I reeled back and the death stalker approached her.

 _Damn deathstalker,_ I thought, a bit annoyed. I managed to do a combat roll and still keep my composure, but its stinger was headed right for Ruby! Thankfully, Weiss showed up and froze it before it could reach her. For a minute, I thought I was going to have to blink in front of her. Catching a giant feather is one thing, but intercepting a giant stinger with low aura would have been even worse.

As they argued…

"… so if you quit trying to show off… I'll be… nicer." Weiss was in the middle of lecturing Ruby.

"Speaking of showing off," Yang said to me after she gave Ruby a hug.

"Hey! I wasn't trying. It's not my fault that looked awesome..." I responded, sort of trailing off.

 _Dammit, stop it, remember, you're not here to be a badass. What is it with this place? Something about it is making me act different. Or is it somehow these people?_ I thought. But, what I didn't know yet was the connection this place and some of these people had to my past.

"Since when can you warp around like that?" Yang asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"Hey, it's not really warping, it's more like blinking. That's my semblance. I call it blink. Anywhere I can see I can blink to… within reason."

"Huh, cool. But, I'm sure I could come up with a hundred better names for it than that."

"Oh yea? Name some then."

Yang proceeded to list off some of the most obscene names I have ever heard, "How about… discharge, or… skip-step! Or maybe, dimension dash, oo! Or bunny-hop!"  
"Bunny-hop…? Seriously? I hate to break it to you, but none of those roll of the tongue quite as well as 'blink.'"

"Oh, I'll figure something out."

I wasn't sure whether or not to be excited or afraid. I turned to Blake as I made the walk of shame to retrieve my boomerang, "Don't you… say anything." She just shrugged and smiled… _so this is how it's gonna be, huh?_ I thought. *sigh*

Turns out we had all gathered right by the monument. Every group had grabbed an artifact… and there weren't any left.

"So, since we're a team of three, I don't need one, right?" I asked. I was a bit concerned.

"I'm pretty sure it's not official," Weiss replied.

"Shit. I'm screwed."

I looked around the altar. _There's gotta be something around…_ I accidentally hit some sort of mechanism. As I touched it, I felt my hand heat up for a moment as if my powers were turned on. I quickly pulled away. _Wait, that couldn't have been-my powers are sealed!_ Before my confusion could continue any further, the ground shifted and a doorway opened in the floor. Another pedestal rose out with a unique artifact. Don't ask me how or why, but it was a phoenix; probably just some sort of sick coincidence...

Well, I took it.

"Time we left." Ren said as the death stalker was starting to break free.

"Right. Let's go." Ruby replied.

We all continued, and as Ruby went over the hill, I had this moment of Déjà vu… was that even worth mentioning? Anyway, while we were on the move, the nevermore and death stalker kept us occupied enough, but as we crossed the bridge, the nevrmore flew at us and tore right through it!

Nora and Jaune were left on one side, the others were on the other side, but me—I wound up on top of the damn thing! For the second time in one day I was hanging onto the tail of the same nevermore. I have to say that nevermore was really pissing me off at this point. After it kicked me again, I lost it.

"STOP KICKING ME!" I yelled with fury.

I starting punching it in the back with my free hand making it squeal, and then I dug my boomerang's blade into it and pulled. Interestingly, it swerved the same direction I pulled in the air. It lost several feathers, but it was far from finished. But, I was falling… again.

I looked around for something to grab—nothing. So, I moved on to plan B: a place to blink that wouldn't result in all of my bones being broken. I quickly scanned my options, then I cracked a sinister grin and blinked. The death stalker was giving Ren, Pyrrha, and Jaune a hard time, so I blinked above it. With the momentum, I slammed into it—perfect timing—or at least it would have been if it weren't for the fact that Nora already had the same route. I will describe what happened next with one word: pain.

The collision was still enough to send the death stalker reeling. Thanks to the backswing of Nora's hammer, I was sent flying in the other direction like a volleyball, but at least I landed somewhere other than the bottom of the chasm. When I stood up, still a bit dazed, I found myself standing by Yang, Weiss, and Ruby.  
Blake landed next to us after landing a few melee hits on it from above.

"It's tougher than it looks," she said.

"Then let's hit it with everything we've got," Yang exclaimed.

"I've got an idea. Keep it busy!" I called, as I headed to the base of the tower.

I made my way to the top of the tower by the bridge as fast as I could and waited for the nevermore to reach us. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang kept firing at it, while I prepared to jump. Just like I thought it would, the nevermore busted its way through the tower. At just the right moment, I jumped off and blinked onto its back. While in the air, I separated my boomerang into two blades. The second I landed, I dug the two blades into the nevermore's back, right by its neck.

The girls were busy trying to recover from the collapsing tower. The nevermore was aiming to slam right into them again, so I pulled the left blade, and sure enough, it swerved to the left, just missing Blake. Yang kept firing at it, so I tried to force the Nevermore into a circle so it would be more vulnerable. I couldn't hold on for long… but I wasn't letting go! I twisted my blades, and looked over at Yang, who was standing on top of one of the pillars. The nevermore was currently on a collision course with her. She nodded at me… _She WANTS it to fly straight into her?!_ I thought, surprised. Well, I decided to trust that she had a plan, so I let it happen. The nevermore tried to fly left, but I pulled the right blade with all my might, causing it to stay on its original course and fly straight at Yang. She jumped into its mouth, pinning herself with her arm and leg and fired into its mouth repeatedly.

"I HOPE YOU'RE HUNGRY!" She yelled as she fired.

Yang jumped off of the dazed nevermore. My eyes widened as I saw where it was headed: straight for the side of the cliff. I tried to pull my blades out of its back, but at this point, they were stuck pretty good. I was about to impact, when I barely managed to pull them free and blink out of the way, landing on the roof next to it. I barely caught myself on the edge of it as my momentum reversed in the opposite direction. The nevermore immediately landed next to me and tried to bat me off. It started to fly up, but I wasn't about to let that happen. I snapped the two blades together and threw my boomerang across the length of the roof to catch its tail feathers, pinning them to it just long enough for Weiss to arrive and freeze it in place. I retrieved my boomerang and split it once again before looking behind me.

I could tell that Ruby had a plan; Weiss got in position to launch her at the pinned nevermore, using Blake's ribbon as a slingshot. Weiss let it rip, and Ruby was sent flying towards the nevermore. I noticed right away that even with Ruby firing crescent rose behind her, she didn't have quite enough momentum to reach the target, so I dove off of the roof, firing both my weapons behind me for extra momentum and got underneath her, pushing her feet to give her a boost. I managed to give her enough height to reach the wall above the nevermore, but the resulting kickback sent me plummeting back down, fast. I collided with the temple ground hard after that, even causing it to crack. I was so focused on boosting Ruby in the right direction that I didn't blink in time.

"Zaine!" Blake yelled as I impacted.

I sat up just in time to watch in awe as Ruby dragged the nevermore up the side of the cliff in a headlock and decapitated it at the top. After, we all saw Ruby standing at the top of that cliff… Déjà vu again… But, this time, I actually remembered something… it might have also had something to do with the force of the impact.

My eyes widened and for a moment as Blake and Yang helped me up, and I lost my composure. I remembered an old friend of mine… someone who was undoubtedly connected to Ruby. I remembered a promise I had made—a promise to keep her safe. Then, I remembered a grave I had found shortly after waking up, and I knew that it was hers. As all of this raced through my mind at once, I lost control of my own voice for a second.

"Summer..." I said it without thinking.

"What was that?" Yang asked, confused.

"Um… I said, that's some… hurt right there!" _Wow, real smooth…_ *sigh*

"Right…" Yang said, still a bit confused.

Weiss and Blake just looked at me like I was insane.

"Sorry, I just remembered something…" _That was close,_ I thought to myself. The more I remembered, the more secrets I was forced to keep.

We managed to make our way back with the relics, and when we did, Ozpin was putting us into teams based on the relics we received. After everyone was put into teams, I was wondering where Ozpin was going to put me.

"For the first time in 18 years, a student discovered the hidden relic."

 _Oh… he better not put a spotlight on me or something_ , I thought to myself. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened.

"Zaine Aggryos!" _Well, so much for not bringing attention to myself._ "Since we had an extra student this year, his reward is... he gets to choose which of the other four teams he would like to join…"

 _Wait, what?!_ I was confused. _Teams at beacon are supposed to be teams of four—wouldn't a team of five be unfair?_ I figured out later that having a team of four was only a standard, not a rule. Apparently, a long time ago, four was just the minimum and teams would often have five or even six people on them. It just meant that they had to choose people to sit out when it came to four on four fights.

Well, I figured I was going to join either team Jnpr (Jaune [leader], Nora, Pyrrha, Ren) or team Rwby (Ruby [leader], Weiss, Blake, Yang), given that we had all worked together. As fate would have it, I was standing right in-between Ruby and Nora. I took a look at Nora, then at Ruby. Crazy Valkyrie chick or cute and badass scythe wielder?

As I inched away from Nora, who was leaning in with a stupid smile on her face, I told Ozpin, "Yea, I guess I'll tag onto team Rwby." I leaned over to Ruby, "If you don't mind?"

"Welcome to the team, Zaine!" Ruby replied.

"Ugh, why am I not surprised." Weiss was not as enthusiastic.

As initiation concluded and people were talking, I was lost in thought: _And I guess that makes our team name, team Rwbyz? Nope, that doesn't sound as cool as I thought it would. I think sticking with the name Rwby would be fine. Maybe Rwby-Z? Dammit, why does my name have to start with a z? *sigh*. Here I am, already surrounding myself with people. I've never had a real friend before now… or did I?_

I thought again about what-who I had remembered. _If she is who I think she was and I knew her in a past life, then could it be fate that I keep running into Ruby? Maybe this won't be so bad... I might have failed to protect her, but maybe this is a second chance… regardless, I can't get too close… I hope to Oum that I don't end up getting anybody burned._

End of CH 3


	4. CH 4: Forging Friendships (Part I)

CH 4: Forging Friendships

I didn't want to get close to anyone, but being on a team… it sort of just happened anyway. My time at Beacon was about to spark not one, but several meaningful friendships in my life—whether I liked or not. After initiation, we finally got our room assignments. Our room was on the top floor. _Yes! This means getting to the roof will be a cinch_. That was my first thought upon hearing the news. I ended up getting there late, and boy was that a mistake.

"Hey Zaine," Ruby greeted me as I entered. The second I took a look around, I realized what was wrong.

"Hey Ruby. Say, um, this is a four person room, isn't it?" I asked.

"What makes you say that?"

"…"

Ruby looked around and saw that there were only four beds, "Oh. Right."

"So… what are we gonna do to decide who sleeps on the floor?"

"I am not sleeping on the floor!" Weiss chimed in.

"I thought it was first come first serve," Yang sided against me as well.

"Well, it's only fair, right?" even Blake agreed with them.

"Sorry, but she has a point you know." _Et tu, Ruby?_

"You know what, it's fine. I can deal; I'll work something out with the staff in the morning." _They better at least give us some extra pillows or something_ , I thought, annoyed that they didn't give us a bigger room.

I found a spot in the back of the room and tried lying on the floor. A pillow sailed across the room and nailed me right in the face.

"Whmrmph! What was that for?"

"Just thought you might want something for your head." It was Yang.

"Oh. Uh, thanks. I thought you were challenging me to some sort of pillow duel."

"Oh, don't worry, we'll settle that one another time. 'Night Zaine."

"Goodnight, Yang." _Challenge accepted._

I figured one night on the floor wouldn't be too bad, but the ache in my back the next morning said otherwise. I didn't think to set an alarm or anything, so instead, I woke up to a whistle being blown in my face.

"Good morning team Rwby!" I sprang up in a frenzy and nearly flipped over.

"What the heck is wrong with you!?" Weiss exclaimed. Guess she got a shock from it as well.

"Now that you're awake, we can officially begin our first order of business!" Ruby was really taking this leader thing seriously.

"Excuse me?" Weiss replied.

"Decorating!" Yang exclaimed.

"What?"

"We still have to unpack," Blake said as she spilled the entire contents of a suitcase. "… And clean."

"Alllright! Weiss, Blake, Yang, Zaine, and they're fearless leader Ruby have begun their first mission! Bonzai!"

"BONZAI!" Ruby, Blake, and Yang all yelled in unison.

I was still too busy recovering from nearly having a heart attack to think about decorating. I was helping fill the bookshelves while Blake was putting some of her books away and she dropped one.

"Here, let me get that," I said. I took a look at the book I had just picked up: 'Ninjas of Love.' Her face turned beet red and she snatched it out of my hands.

"You don't speak of this to anyone," she said with a serious look.

"Um… ok?"

After everything was said and done, we ended up bunking the beds against Weiss's better judgement. Given that one of my skills is mechanics and the like, I was able to reinforce them... sort of. They still looked pretty unstable. As far as my own sleeping situation, the staff was pretty stingy about providing another bed. We also didn't have too much space, so I ended up just making myself a drop down hammock. You wouldn't believe how comfortable those things are.

The first day of classes was pretty boring. For some reason I felt as though I already knew all the material… it was really weird. At least that meant it was a breeze. We did get to watch Weiss fight and almost get maimed by a boarbatusk though. That was pretty entertaining.

I turned one corner of the room into a sort of workshop where I spent a lot of my spare time working on… things. I've kept in contact with Al and he's been sending me materials and blueprints for some new tech. The rest of the team isn't usually too interested in what I'm working on. Occasionally Ruby will ask me, but as soon as I start explaining it, I can see her entire nervous system start to shut down. One day, Weiss came by to lecture me on how I should be studying…

"You know we have a test tomorrow, right?" Weiss said to me.

"Yep," I stated plainly as I twisted my screwdriver, working on my boomerang.

"And you know that it's going to be one of the most difficult tests of the semester?"

"Yep." She looked at me, unamused.

"Then shouldn't you be studying like the rest of us?"

"Nope. Don't need to."

"And why not?"

"I already know the material."

"How exactly? I barely ever find you doing actual work and you rarely pay attention in class."

"I'm a fast learner."

"Oh, don't give me that. You've got some sort of trick don't you?"

"Not really."

"Oh my gosh, are you cheating or something?"

"Ok, you're starting to sound a bit ridiculous now. Why would I go through the effort of cheating when the system is so strict?"

"Well, you have a point there… but still, I don't buy this whole 'fast learner' thing."

"Alright, I get it. You're worried about this test and you're annoyed that I'm not taking it seriously."

"Well… I'm not… I wouldn't say I'm worried, of course I'll do well, it's just that…"

I put down my screwdriver and pulled grabbed by school bag.

"Alright, I've decided. I'm going to help you study."

"What? What makes you think I'd need your help?"

"Alright, I guess I'll just design us a doorbell that makes farting sounds then," I said as I picked up my screwdriver.

"What? No! ugh, fine! We can study together, but just so you know, you're not helping me, alright? If anything, I'm the one helping you."

"O-k. Whatever you say."

Yea, I'm pretty sure she wanted help from the start but was just too cocky to ask anyone for it. If you're wondering, I'm pretty certain I did fine on the exam and I'm sure Weiss did too. I'm still waiting for a thank-you, but I might as well accept the fact that it probably won't ever come.

I've never had real friends before…. But now, I'm starting to find myself surrounded by them. It was a quiet day, and I decided to hang out in the library. A series of …well, events happened.

 _Structured Dust Mechanics… Quantum Dust Theory… Parallel Quasar Generation Initiative… Ick… oh! Dust for Dummies, perfect!_ I was working on a new idea that involved utilizing an extremely compact energy core made of gravity dust. Of course I could just get Al to do it (in another universe a black haired teen sneezed causing the energy and lightning dust core he was making to blow up in his face), but I was bored and interested in figuring something out on my own, so I decided to do some research. To be honest, I rarely visited the library outside of school stuff, yet I recognized a lot of books as if I had read them. _Was one of my past selves a serious bookworm or something?_

I got what I needed and decided to sit down in the corner. Being a Saturday, the library was pretty much empty. However, I did notice one person sitting on one of those comfy library chairs behind a book. I sat down next to her. Of course, it was none other than Blake. She lowered her book and looked over to me.

"Zaine?"

I did my best Ozpin prediction, "Actually, it's your headmaster, the amazing genius . Ozpin III." There was a moment of deadly silence…

"*giggle* he does not sound like that…" _Wait-did I just make Blake laugh?! I think that's the first time I've even seen her laugh…_ "Ok, well, maybe a little bit... If you don't mind me asking, since when do you read in your spare time?"

"Well, I've got this great idea, but I'm not really smart enough to make it work. Reading's good for learning, right?"

"It's good for a lot of things. I just do it for fun."

"Yea, it's relaxing. If you don't mind me asking, what book are you reading right now?"

"Oh, it's... a story about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body." _Why does that sound familiar?_

"That sounds…. pretty interesting."

"I'm almost finished, if you'd like to read it next."

"Oh, yea, maybe I'll check it out. It's been awhile since I've read a book recommended by a friend." It may have been longer than even I know.

"Yea… by a friend. I think you'll like it. It's written by one of my favorite authors."

Later on that day, Blake came by and gave me the book she was talking about. I looked at it and I nearly lost my marbles. The title was "Inferno's Crusade." I looked at the inside of the back cover to find out who the author was— _holy…!_ 'Written by the late Z. Raye.'

 _Just… one… more… twist…_ *Click!* _Done!_ I had finally done it. I had just installed the last piece for the modifications Al helped me with. _This baby's ready to fly!_ I scooted myself out from under my completed work and wiped the sweat of my brow. Being a talented mechanic, one thing I pride myself with the most is my vehicle.

Given that I was busy with classes and such at Beacon, I had less time lately to work on it, and considering that these upgrades were delicate and precise, I had to keep it in the shop all this time, meaning I was walking everywhere. By shop, I'm referring to the abandoned warehouse I basically lived in the last couple of years, before I came to Beacon. Nobody ever came to this area, it had a lot of space and junk to tinker with, and although it's not the most comfortable, it's better than paying rent. The team had no other plans for the weekend, so I spent day and night working on it.

 _It's finally finished…_ I thought as I wheeled it out of my workspace. _Crimson Ember._ That's my vehicle: the coolest and fastest motorcycle I could create. The design was all my own, and I did all the work myself. I only asked Al for help developing a few upgrades to… increase its terrain capacity, so to speak. All that was left was convincing the staff at Beacon to let me keep it on campus.

It was only Saturday afternoon, which meant there was plenty of time to take it out for a spin. I opened the front gate, and revved the engine. The sound was music to my ears. I flipped down the visor on my helmet, gripped the ignition, and… I was off! There was a blast of light and dust behind me as I took off.

I decided to take the country trails just outside of Vale, to avoid being penalized for breaking any traffic laws. Besides, getting back wouldn't be a problem no matter where I was, once I reached phase two… I zoomed around trees and up hills with pinpoint accuracy, and that's when I reached it: the edge of the cliff above Emerald forest: the ultimate stunt ramp. You might be thinking that I'm completely insane, and that a jump like that would only get me killed, and you're right on both, but I wasn't going to jump, I was taking off!

I activated the upgrade, causing the core of the engine to glow and exert purple exhaust. Just like that, Crimson Ember transformed. Gravity dust released from the bottom, lifting me just above the ground, high powered jet-propelled rockets came out of the back, the wheels folded in, and wings folded out from the sides. I flew through the air like a jet plane. I could see everything from up there. I flew over the Emerald Forest, over downtown Vale, even Beacon. I was going so fast, even their radar couldn't detect me.

I cruised for a while, but I was just flying over Beacon tower, when I heard a beeping sound. I looked at my HUD and saw a message: fuel level at 5%... 4% _What?! Why didn't it give me an advanced warning?!_ I must have not been paying attention because of how much fun I was having. Turns out this level of speed really eats through fuel quick.

I slowed down until I was basically just hovering and got lower, careful not to be noticed, searching frantically for a place to land. There were some bushes next to the back exit of the library that seemed like a good enough hiding place for the moment while I figured out what to do, so I headed toward them. 3%... 2% _Come on, just ease in there_ , I thought as I carefully, yet hastily made my way to the bushes. Luckily enough barely anyone was around so nobody spotted me landing, well almost nobody. Just at the worst moment, someone came out of the library. Thankfully, it was only Ruby and not a teacher. At the moment I was afraid of running into her.

"Ruby! Move! Move!" I told her in a hushed voice.

"Zaine? What are you-why are you on a… is that a flying motorcycle?"

"Yes… Yes it is. Can you help me hide it?"

"Um… sure. Why exactly did you bring it here?"

"Well you see, I ran out of… well, it's a long story."

"Oh, well are you sure this is a good place to be keeping it?"

"Nope, I just need a place to hide it until I have a chance to move it." As she helped me wheel it behind the bush and cover it up, she gazed at the detailed chassis.

It was sleek, colored deep black with crimson highlights around the edges, and had black rims. It wasn't like a conventional motorcycle, having an almost futuristic, yet still believable look to it.

"Woah… this is… awesome… where did you get this thing?"

"I built it."

"You built it? From scratch?"

"I told you I was a mechanic."

"Woah… I like the colors."

"Ah, yes, the colors of the plants and trees are quite lovely this time of year."

We both spun around to see Ozpin standing there, sipping on a cup of coffee. _Shit! I'm busted!_ We tried our best to quickly stand in front of the hidden motorcycle. Ruby even held a fallen tree branch behind her back to cover it up a bit more.

"Oh… um, hi… Professor Ozpin! Fancy meeting you here," Ruby said.

"Indeed. It's nice to see you Ruby, Zaine." There were several awkward moments of us just standing there and holding our positions while smiling.

"Say, you wouldn't happen to be hiding something from me, would you?" He asked us. Ruby and I looked at each other, then back at Ozpin.

"Um… whatever would make you say that?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing," he said smiling.

"Nice weather today, huh?" Ruby said awkwardly.

"Quite so. I'd say it's perfect weather for a nice drive, wouldn't you agree?"

I nodded awkwardly.

"In fact, I think I might just go for one a bit later in my car, which I parked in the school parking ramp on the southeastern side of campus." Ruby and I looked at each other and then back at Ozpin again. "Well, I hope you two have a nice afternoon, and stay out of trouble," he said as he left. We both let out a sigh of relief.

"Sorry for almost getting you in trouble with me," I said to Ruby as soon as Ozpin was out of earshot.

"Oh, it's fine. I'm always happy to help a friend in need. Even if he's breaking a couple rules."

"Ehehe…"

"But, I only ask one thing in return."

"What's that?"

"Pleeeaase take me for a ride!"

"Um… yea, sure! Why the heck not? But, first, I need to get more jet fuel."

"...Jet-fuel?"

"…Yea."

"That thing must go soooo fast."

"Oh, you have no idea. Now, what was that Ozpin said about a parking ramp?"

End of CH 4


	5. CH 5: Forging Friendships (Part II)

Things were pretty normal for a while. I did have some problems convincing Glynda to let me have Crimson Ember on campus. Apparently, someone as young as me shouldn't be driving such a 'dangerous vehicle.' The dumb thing is that Yang has a motorcycle and she drives that thing like a lunatic. I swear, she has an entire glove box full of unpaid tickets. Eventually, Ozpin came to my rescue and convinced her to let me have it. I had to be careful smuggling in the jet fuel for it though, because when Glynda said it was dangerous, she was talking about normally-before the whole flight thing.

I hadn't forgotten about my promise to Ruby, but, as fate would have it, someone else would beat her to the punch. Late one night, I was going out to get food when I happened to run into Yang in the parking lot.

"Oh, hey Zaine. What brings you here? Going to a club or something?" I could tell she was joking… _or was she?_

"I was working on some blueprints and I had this strange craving for hot dogs. Is that weird?" I said as we approached the spot where both our motorcycles were parked.

"I don't think so. I get hungry at night all the time," Yang said as she got on her motorcycle and I got on Crimson Ember. "Wait… that bike is yours? Are you even old enough to drive that?" She seemed a bit surprised.

"Yes, yes it is—and you bet I am. I told you I was a mechanic." I revved it up. Crimson Ember's deep black chassis seemed to glow in the moonlight as I wheeled it out of its parking spot.

"*Whistle* and you're saying you built that yourself?"

"Yep. Her name's Crimson Ember and she's built for speed, and well, my friend Al is a tech genius, so he helped me with a few upgrades."

"Alright. Let's see you prove it," Yang said as she parked her own motorcycle and got on Crimson Ember. _Um… hi,_ I thought, not really expecting it.

"Take me for a ride. We'll see just how fast it is."

"…Alright, you asked for it." Ok, I'll admit it, I kind of drive like a lunatic too. But this bike does more than drive. With that, we took off.

… A few minutes later ...

"WOOO! This is insane! Go any faster and we might break the sound barrier!" Yang exclaimed.

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet!" I put the pedal to the metal. Well, not an actual pedal—it is a motorcycle after all.

"Woah Zaine! We're gonna run out of road!"

"We don't need road!"

With that, I activated the flight mechanism. Gravity dust released from the bottom to gives us a lift, rockets came out of the back, the wheels folded in, and wings folded out from the sides.

"What?! WOAAAH!" We went straight up, clearing the buildings in front of us. "This is… Awesome!" We flew above the city just appreciating the view for a while.

"The city lights look great from up here, huh?" I said.

"Yea…" I turned and saw the look she had on her face. _What am I doing…?_ I thought. "Now I know why you always like to climb onto the roof." _If only I could tell her how great flying is when I'm using my wings…_

"Alright, I'll admit it. My bike can't do this," Yang said with a grin.

"Well, thinking about it, it is sort of dumb how much time I put into this thing… I just never really thought about showing her to anyone before…"

"Well, I think it was totally worth it, even if just for one night… and I bet _she_ agrees."

"Yea, you're right." _Is this all worth it?_ I thought, _Maybe… Maybe I could just stay as Zaine Aggryos..._

"Hey, Zaine."

"Yea?"

"I think it was really cool that we got to have you on our team. You know, not just to have an extra person. You're pretty awesome."

 _What exactly am I getting myself into?_ Now I'd need to stock up on jet fuel once again-I still had to give Ruby the ride I promised after all.

A couple days later, we got our mid-term reports. I discovered with a visible expression of accomplishment that I got a nearly perfect score on the test that Weiss and I studied for all night a while back. I mean that quite literally; I actually sort of embarrassed myself, and I nearly scared the socks off of Ruby, who was sitting next to me. I think she had fallen asleep in class… again.

I was eating lunch later that day when Weiss sat down next to me.

"Hey ice queen. So, how did you do on that test?"

"Could you please not talk with food in your mouth like some kind of ape? It's just revolting."

I swallowed, "Oh, sorry."

"And if you're wondering, I did fine. Actually, I got a nearly perfect score."

"Cool, same here. I think that last minute studying really helped."

"I guess it may have made a difference."

"You said nearly perfect. So, which question did you miss?"

"Well…"

"Was it the map?"

"Um, maybe... how did you know?"

"I missed it too. That map was bullshit."

"Now that, I can agree with you on."

After we finished eating and Weiss got up to leave, she turned around and did the most un-Weiss thing I've ever seen her do.

"So, Zaine."

"Yea Weiss?"

"Thanks for studying with me. Although I hate to admit it, you're actually pretty smart... for a doofus."

 _Wait, did Weiss just… compliment me?!_ I thought, thoroughly surprised, The closest thing I've ever got to a compliment was being called a dolt or dunce. Guess I've advanced to the intelligent doofus stage.

"Although it might be hard to believe, I don't think I would have done so well if we hadn't studied together like that," she added.

"Me neither. You're smart too. Just don't let it go to your head," I replied.

"Like I ever do that! …ok, fine. Well, then promise me this." _This should be good. What's she gonna tell me, that I need to clean the oil stains off of my sheets or something?_ "Promise me that next time we have a big test, we'll study together again." _Wait, …what?!_ "Alright?"

"Sure... You really mean it?"

"Well… considering, you're probably the least annoying person for me to study with... Blake never says anything, Yang's puns make me want to pull my hair out, and Ruby never pays attention."

"Alright, it's a deal, study partner."

"…ok, do not call me that… also, you really need to clean the oil stains off of your sheets."

 _And there it is… of course._

I have to say, this sword of mine is starting to become a problem. I mean, carrying a huge sword around that I can't use is annoying as it is, but then there's the talk. Ruby and I were passing through the courtyard on our way back to our room one Friday when I guess her curiosity finally got the best of her.

"So Zaine, I was wondering… don't you ever get tired of carrying that thing around all the time?"

"*sigh*…. YES," I replied.

"*giggle*, so why don't you just leave it somewhere?"

"Like I've already said, the damn thing won't leave me alone."

"Yea, you keep saying that, but what exactly does that mean?" _I guess I'll just have to show her then_ , I thought. _It's better to share this now than to make her suspicious enough to suspect something else_.

"…Stay there for a second," I told her as I ran over to the other side of the courtyard.

I took my sword (AND sheath), held them up so she could see, then put them down on a bench. I ran back to where Ruby was.

"What are you doing exactly?"

"Just watch..." I pointed at my back where I kept my sword. "Three, Two, One, and… wait for iiiiit..." My sword and sheath reappeared on my back, simultaneously disappearing from the bench.

"Woah… so… ohhh. I get it. That's convenient."

"I was thinking more along the lines of… really inconvenient."

"How does it do that? It's almost like some kind of magic."  
"Uh—I'm exactly sure how, but I gave up on figuring out a long time ago… It's not too big of a deal, just an extra thing to carry."

"Why not just use the sword?"

"…um, well, you see…" _THINK of SOMETHING…_ "It's hard to explain, but it's not a weapon I can really wield…" _Not here or now at least…_ "The only reason I'm carrying it around is because it won't leave me alone."

"Heh, well that sucks. So you're just gonna bank on old reliable then, huh?" She said sarcastically, referring to my boomerang.

"Yea… well, clearly a lot of people aren't convinced that my boomerang is a good enough weapon because of how it keeps getting knocked out of the air. I beg to differ, but I thought I might as well find a backup somewhere in case it, well…"

"Doesn't come back?"

"*sigh*, yea. But hey, At least lugging this thing around builds muscle, right?" I jokingly tried to show off the muscle that I had.

"Um, you're getting there," she said, not too impressed. "So why haven't you gotten a new weapon yet? Besides not wanting another thing to carry."

"I've been trying to build something, but, well…" at that moment I remembered to about a week ago when I accidently caused an explosion that nearly destroyed the science lab and got me banned from it… "It's taking a while."

"Well, maybe all you need is a bit of inspiration. I know a place where we can look at all sorts of weapons. Ooo, wanna go right now? We could weapon browse together. As team leader, it's my duty to make sure that everyone on team Rwby is properly equipped for battle! Besides, it would be fun."

I thought to myself, _won't I just get Al to help me design a new weapon? Probably, but why not browse for a while? It'd be fun, right? Who knows, maybe I'll get an awesome idea._

"Sure, I'll give it a shot. Lead the way, fearless leader!" I exclaimed with the bit of enthusiasm that I am capable of.

"Alright, this way!" she shot off into the city and I followed, barely able to keep up.

… Several hours later …

"I was sure it was around here somewhere…" Ruby said despondently as we wandered down the same street corner for the tenth time.

"Hey Ruby, I think we might be lost," I said.

"…"

"Also, it's starting to get dark. Maybe we should go get a map and come find it later."

"Ugh… I failed."

"Hey, don't say that. It wasn't a total failure. I mean, that donut shop you found was pretty cool."

"Yea…"

"And guess what?"

"What?"

"I saved one." Her eyes immediately expanded and rolled toward me expectantly. I pulled the donut out of bag.

"Strawberry… filled… krispy kreme…" Ruby was drooling at this point. By the time I had blinked she had already snatched it out of my hands and… it was gone.

"Ahh… thanks Zaine. I needed that."

"Well, we had fun, right?"

"Yea, I'd say so."

"I can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night. Plus, this gives us an excuse to come back."

"Yea! Right after we finish that whole field trip thing next week."

"Alright, how about we do this again next Friday? This time, with a map and more money for donuts."

"Sounds great to me! ...Now, which way is it back to Beacon again...?"

 _Wait, did I just make a date?_ I thought to myself, _No, don't be silly, you're just hanging out with a good friend, who happens to be a girl your age, alone, in a city, at night, on a Friday… I'm really not making it sound any better with this, am I?_

End of CH 5


	6. CH 6: Sewer Dogs

**Hello there! This is your author speaking. In light of this being a shorter chapter, (and the last one too, evidently…) I decided I should provide you all with a bit of an update. As you can probably already tell, I will be uploading new chapters every week on Tuesday night, give or take a few hours.**

 **Second, as far as the future, I have about 12 chapters for volume 1 and I'm still working on volume 2. Once volume 1 is fully uploaded, I'll be taking a bit of a break with uploads to get volume 2 ready, but don't worry—I'll be back, and hopefully keep you updated!**

 **Lastly, but certainly not least, I'd like to extend a huge thanks to my fellow writer and friend, The Ultimate Impulse, for mentioning me in his recent post! Thanks a ton, man! If you haven't already, check out his story Grimm Rose. It follows a similar style to a really cool manga called 'The Gamer.'**

 **With all that said, I'd like to thank all of you who have taken the time to read my story, and I hope you enjoy Zaine's next adventure!**

CH 6: Sewer Dogs

 _Where is it?_ That was all that was going through my mind as I wandered around the city like an idiot. _I need to find it… for the sake of the WORLD! I need to find that damn…. Hot Dog Shoppe!_ Ok, I was being a bit dramatic. But to be honest, I was dying… well, not literally. Wouldn't that be an ironic way to end a life, huh?

It was the middle of the night, and there was only one 24-hour place to get food: Doug's Dogs, the Hot Dog Shoppe. I had this nasty habit of staying up too late working on inventions that never worked, or putting off work, and skipping meals too. After I joined Beacon and put away my crusade, my powers, and everything, I always had this feeling-this itch… I knew I couldn't just ditch my team and try to fight it without powers and I knew I couldn't risk using them. So, my solution was fulfilling my time with useless hobbies, little sleep, and stress eating. To be honest, I was on a downhill path, and it wouldn't be long before it got worse.

I had to fuel my late night episodes somehow. Unfortunately, Doug's Dogs was not a regular Shoppe. It was a moving one: a traveling hot dog van. I visited all of their usual spots, but it wasn't there. _Something's wrong…_ I thought, as I blinked to the top of one of the tallest buildings and scanned the area. _Doug may be in trouble_. I scanned the entire city of Vale as best as I could, and that's when I noticed what was out of place: a manhole. It was small, but it was something.

I headed down to it and looked inside. Naturally, a pretty nasty odor was emanating from inside. However, among the scent of sewage, I caught something else… _Relish…_

Without hesitation, I went in. _Nobody messes with my hot dogs. I'll make them pay!_ I thought as I slid down the ladder and landed with a *slush.* _Well, looks like I'm going to be needing new shoes_. I ran the length of the sewer looking for anything unusual. I was immediately greeted by strange black sewage that didn't seem normal.

 _Impossible… grimm? Getting into the city through the sewers?!_ I thought, surprised. I followed the trail of black, and it led into a large room.

It was open with several walls which divided different channels for sewage to drain. But beyond the ordinary, there was something attached to the walls. I grabbed the flashlight I always took with me at night and took a closer look. It wasn't debris or some sort of weird plant; it was a series of pods.

 _No… way…_ I thought as I looked around and then up, seeing several more reaching up to the ceiling. The pods were a mix of red, black, and a sickly green. I approached one of the pods to try and look inside, when something dripped onto me—something vile… _black sewage._

I held my breath and listened close. Although it was very, very faint, my above average hearing was able to pick up some sort of oozing sound mixed in with a bit of clicking. I slowly looked up, and that's when I finally saw it: A massive grim, resembling a caterpillar—no centipede—of some kind, with large, curved and spiked plates around it forming a shell and thousands of needle-like legs. It stared down at me from the ceiling and gave out a long, loud screech, opening up its toothy maw to reveal row after row of razor like teeth. A couple antennae that resembled syringes jutted out from it as well, constantly twitching as it prepared to vault off the ceiling. _Well, that's just great_ I thought.

I dove out of the way as it dropped down at me, making a massive splash of sewage as it landed. I looked back just in time to see it spit a stream of liquid at me. I side stepped and pinned myself against the wall to avoid it. The sickly green liquid splattered against the other wall behind me and made a sizzling sound as it started to dissolve the stone.

 _Acid, huh? This is going to be fun…_ I thought as I pulled out my boomerang, split it, and immediately started firing. The shots only seemed to annoy it, as it continued firing acid at me. I decided to close the gap and went for slashes. Its plate armor was too thick for me to make a scratch. What's worse was that its tail moved lightning fast, knocking me away after only a few strikes.

 _This is no good… I have to find a weak point_ I thought. I circled around it until I found something—there was a crack in its armor. I decided I would focus my fire on it. I kept dodging and firing into that same crack to try and weaken it. It got wise to my plan though and started advancing towards me.

Then, I got an idea. The acid had weakened a section of the wall. I decided to hit it with as much force as I could, and sure enough, it shattered, leaving behind tons of rocks and chunks of debris. I directed the spray of debris onto the goggie (what I later found out to be its name), which was coming after me at this point, and the dust and rocks got in its mouth and face.

 _Now!_ I took the distraction as a chance to attack, but again its tail immediately batted me away! I impacted first with the wall, then with the ground, getting sewage all over me, pretty much ruining my favorite gray t-shirt.

 _I'm gonna make it regret that one,_ I thought as I angrily got up and wiped myself off. It started approaching me as I quickly tried to come up with another plan. _I'm doing this all wrong… It's got… no eyes, ears, or nose… how does it see me?_ I thought really hard for a solution as I started backing up slowly. With every step I took, its antennae twitched.

 _Wait…_ I started to remember something I had learned in Professor Port's class about subterranean grimm. _That's it!_ I thought just as the goggie was about to reach me. I placed both my blades at my feet, fired, and did the largest leap that I could. I did a wall jump to gain even more height.

 _Certain subterranean creatures rely on tremor sense to find their prey—it senses where I am based on my movement. I might not be able to attack it from the ground, but it can't feel where I am if I'm not touching anything!_ Sure enough, as soon I was airborne, the antennae stopped twitching; goggie had lost me. It moved around, trying to find me.

I didn't hesitate in what I did next. I fired one shot into the wall next to it, causing it to turn around, then I turned both guns behind me and fired to propel myself toward it. As it turned to the wall, it left its weak point open. I jammed both my blades into the crack in its armor as I fell, adding in my momentum. The creature let out an ear-shattering shriek as I dug my blades into its soft flesh and pried off part of its armor.

I jumped to avoid its tail, then attacked its soft spot again, this time piercing all the way through. The creature flailed as it let out one final shriek, then went silent. Immediately, it began to evaporate into black smoke, its antennae continuing to twitch up until they disappeared.

I let out a huge sigh, then immediately remembered why I came here in the first place. I rushed over to the pods, praying that the debris and acid hadn't destroyed them all. Upon close inspection, there seemed to be something pulsing inside several of them.

I tore them open one by one—most of them were empty, or filled with slime, but within the three I found that were pulsing, there was something else. I carefully cut them open, and out fell three people… there was a woman, an older man, and… DOUG DOUGLASS!

Sure enough, the man who owned Doug's Dogs, fell out and into my arms. The old man and woman came too, scratching their heads and wondering where they were. The woman immediately covered her nose, but the old man just looked around and stayed confused.

"Are you alright?" I asked them.

"We're ok… thank you very much for saving us," the woman replied.

"Oh, Zaine! Ain't I glad to see you!" Doug told me.

"Ditto, Doug," I said.

"Heh! This place is pretty big for a penthouse, dontcha think? Could use a couple o' throw rugs and maybe a potted plant er two, yep," the old man said, still sort of delirious… or maybe that was how he always was.

Long story short, I helped them out and delivered the people to the police station. Apparently the woman and the old man had been missing for a few days now. I tried to hint to them not to say anything about me, but you know people… they never keep quiet. At least Doug was someone I knew, so I could count on him keeping things under wraps. I was sitting by Doug at the police station, when I asked him something I probably shouldn't have.

"Hey Doug… you wouldn't mind, keeping this under wraps when the press asks you what happens?"

He nodded, "Yea, I know you don't like your name advertised. Still, you're a hero! Someone ought to know, right?"

"Yea, it's fine. Just knowing you're alright is good enough for me… Say, you wouldn't happen to… still be open for business at some time tonight?"

What? I was hungry… Well, even though the hot dog place wouldn't be open for at least a few days, I did manage to snag a couple of donuts from the police station. By the time I arrived back at our room in Beacon, it was already becoming morning. I collapsed onto my hammock, and only a few moments later, the lights went on.

"Gooooood morning, Team Rwby!"

"Ugh… whyyy," I groaned.

"..Eww! What is that stench?!" Weiss called out from her bed, having caught my scent.

"I don't know… woo, it's terrible!" Yang added.

"Ew, you're right," Ruby added in a nasal voice, plugging her nose. "It smells like somebody took a bath in a sewer."

Blake just covered her nose and looked over at me.

"Um… I think I'm *yawn* gonna go… take a shower…" _Or ten,_ I said and thought as I meandered out of the room like a zombie.

Most people would brag, but I didn't like to advertise my good deeds, because I didn't like the attention. I've always tried to live 'low key.' Being on a secret crusade outside of the law and having dangerous superpowers will do that to you.

Well, it took about 15 showers to get that smell out, and Blake still avoided me for a while after that. I guess she has some sort of super powerful nose or something. After that whole episode, I decided to start going to bed on a more decent schedule, and by Oum, did it help me. I never ran into a giant centipede in a sewer looking for a hot dog salesman ever again. I'd call that an improvement. I did, however, run through one chasing a sociopath that had somehow gotten high off of Dust, but that's a story for another time.

End of CH 6


	7. CH 7: Saps and Suckers

CH 7: Sap and Suckers

It was about time we got to do something more interesting: a field trip to Forever Fall Forest. Glynda was chaperoning and enlisted us to collect tree sap—what for I do not know. Allegedly we were collecting it for a 'Professor Peach' who I've never seen or heard of before. I'm assuming that either she or Ozpin were devising some sort of mind control device or that one of them had a massive sweet tooth. Anyway, we split into groups based on our teams, but Jaune was dragged off by Cardin Winchester.

I found a tree, that I admit was a slightly different color, but I didn't think it mattered. It had softer bark than the others, so getting the sap out was a lot easier. As I finished filling my jar, I walked over to where the rest of my team and team Jnpr minus Jaune were collecting their sap.

"Um… Zaine, are you sure that's the right sap?" Ruby asked me.

I looked at theirs then back at mine and noticed that mine was a shade of red-orange-gold while theirs was a deep fuchsia. Glynda said we needed 'red sap' so I figured this was good enough. Weiss, however, wasn't in agreement with that logic.

"Of course it's not the right sap, it's the wrong color," Weiss scoffed.

"Well, how was I supposed to know? Neither of them are actually red," I scoffed back, "besides this is what tree sap is supposed to look like."

"What tree did you get it from?" Ren asked, peeping into the conversation.

"That big one over there," I said as I pointed out the tree.

Listen, I've never been much of a nature guy, alright? I've probably accidently burned down a forest or two in a past life, but I was never the best at navigating them.

"That… isn't a tree," he responded.

"Well, then… what is it?"

"…It's… a hive."

"Honey!" Nora exclaimed.

"Wait, you mean a bee hive?" I asked.

"Duh, what other kind of hive would it be, you doofus?" Weiss asked.

"I don't know, rapier wasps maybe?"

"Actually, these aren't regular honey bees or rapier wasps. I believe this is a nest of dragonbees," Ren pointed out.

"Why… does that sound intimidating?" I asked, intimidated.

"Because dragonbees are a form of grimm," Ren said in a monotone voice.

"What?!"

"But their honey is actually quite delicious. It is very spicy and makes for great chili."

"Spicy, huh?" I said. I happen to adore spicy food. I dipped my finger in and tried some. "Wow! This is great!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, come on. You didn't even flinch. It can't be that spicy." Ruby said as she dipped her finger in to try some.

I have to say, the look on her face was priceless. It immediately shifted to a deep red. I think I even saw some steam come out of her ears (meh, maybe that part was just my imagination).

"AHHH! HOT HOT HOT!" She screamed as she ran around in circles. She was in the process of frantically trying to wipe the spiciness off of her tongue, "lahg—lah—are you evthen human?!"

 _The honest answer to that question is… no_ , I thought to myself.

"Ruby! Pipe down, you'll draw the attention of the bees," Weiss called out in a scolding whisper as a faint buzzing sound started to come from inside of the tree shaped hive and slowly intensify.

"Sowrry…" she responded, her tongue still out.

"You okay, Ruby? Cat got your tongue?" Yang said as she appeared along with Blake and Pyrrha.

"Acthuawthy, it thwaws thiths thspithy hothey."

"What is she talking about?" Yang asked me.

"It's not my fault she couldn't handle it," I responded jokingly.

"Handle what?" she asked me.

"This, awesome spicy honey," I said as I took another finger full without flinching. "Mm…."

"Oh yea, give me that," she said as she took the jar and prepared to take a big swig.

Everyone's eyes widened.

"No, no!" Just about everyone said in some regard.

Meanwhile, Ruby, "YANG, NOOOOOOO!"

Well, the deed was done… I blame myself.

"WOAAH! HOOOOOOT! HOOOOOOOOT!"

This time I'm sure it wasn't my imagination. Yang literally breathed fire. The entire forest shook and birds retreated from every tree within a mile. From that, the hive shook violently and thousands of small, beelike grimm (dragonbees) started to form a swarm.

"Well, that's not good," Pyrrha said.

The swarm started to flock, and everyone backed up.

"It's ok," Ren assured us. "They're only attracted by large amounts of heat. We should be fine."

 _Did he just say… heat?! SHIT!_ I thought. Sure enough, the swarm came right after me... Oh, the PAIN.

"AAAHHHH!" I yelled as I ran frantically in circles around the forest trying to shake off as many as I could. For the minute I completely forgot about the fact that I had blink.

"Wait, then why are they all going after Zaine?" Pyrrha asked.

"What kind of heat were you talking about exactly?" Yang added.

"…why do you ask?" Ren responded.

"Oh, no reason," she said smiling while glancing over at the shit-show.

"Instead of worrying about why they're chasing him, shouldn't we help him or something?" Blake asked.

"Oh, he'll be fiiine," Nora said, "They only start to kill you after like 30 or so stings."

"That's a lot more than 30 bees," Ruby said, immediately taking out crescent rose and becoming a lot more worried.

At that moment, I ran by again. "AHHHH!"

Ruby tried to swipe at the swarm a few times, but only caught air and a few dragonbees, which zoomed around her face, causing her to lose her composure. She managed to get them off, but in the process wound up getting dizzy and falling over.

"That sure went well," Nora said sarcastically as Ruby picked herself up and wiped the dust off of her clothes.

"We need to try something else! Ren, you seem to be the expert here, so how do you deal with these things?" Ruby asked him, annoyed at this point.

"Hm… I think I skipped that part," Ren replied.

"Whaa?"

"Wait, didn't you get the highest score on the grimm exam?" Weiss asked him.

"Yes, I got a 99."

"So?! Think!"

"Hm… Oh! I remember!"

"What, how do you beat them?" Ruby asked.

"I remembered that the answer to the question about how to neutralize dragonbees…" Everyone leaned in, " …was the one I got wrong." Everyone fell flat after that.

"WHAT?!" I hollered, still running from the bees.

"Well, like Ruby said, we need to do something," Pyrrha said, as she pulled out milo's rifle form and started shooting into the swarm.

"Woah! They're shooting at me now!" I called out, not knowing where the bullets were coming from.

"I'm Sorry! Well… this isn't going to work," she said. "There's too many of them, and they're too small to hit."

"They are naturally resistant to and attracted by heat… so perhaps something cold will slow them down," Ren inquired. Everyone immediately look at Weiss.

"What am I supposed to do?" She asked.

"Um… Oh, I know! Ice flower!" Ruby suggested.

"Are you sure? I thought we were still practicing that one," Weiss responded, concerned.

"Well, now's a better time than any to try it out!" Ruby responded, "He's circling back! Ice flower! Now!"

With that, Weiss created a few glyphs in front of Ruby, who aimed crescent rose through them, right at me and the swarm who were heading straight for them.

"Zaine, Jump!" Ruby called to me.

"Jump? Here?" I responded as I ran towards them.

"Anywhere, just jump! Now!" _Well this seems awfully familiar_ , I thought.

Right as I reached them, I jumped into the air, right over the glyph and over Ruby, and… didn't quite make it over Weiss. But as I was in the air, Ruby fired repeatedly.

"YAHH!" She yelled as she unloaded crescent rose.

Her shots created ice blasts as they passed through the glyphs in front of her and after only few moments, the entire swarm was frozen solid.

"It… worked!" I exclaimed as I fell over in a heap. "Thanks a ton, Ruby."

"Oh it was nothing," She responded with a smile.

"Hey, what about me?! You practically used me as a landing platform!" Weiss interjected, as she too sat up, having been sent to the ground by my landing.

"Oh, yea. Thanks, Weiss," I said from the floor.

"Looks like somebody's energy got **sapped** ," Yang said as she and Ruby helped me up off the ground.

"Un- **bee** -lievable," I said with a faint grin.

"Um I hate to be the one to rain on the parade, but…" Pyrrha started.

"What?" Weiss asked.

"The bees are… thawing."

Everyone looked at each other for a minute, then back at the bees, which were generating heat and starting to move around inside the ice block.

"Yea, we should run," Ruby said. And with that, we all fled the scene.

We managed to find a better spot to collect tree sap, after putting a good distance between ourselves and the dragonbees. While we were finishing up, we heard some commotion from Jaune and Cardin's group. A massive ursa was attacking Cardin and John! We thought about helping, but Jaune managed to take it down on his own… well, Pyrrha gave some help with her polarity, but we decided to let Jaune have his victory.

Despite how much of a jerk Cardin had been to Jaune lately, Jaune saved his ass. After that, I guess Cardin decided to leave him alone. But, that didn't mean he would stop being a jerk altogether. Sooner or later, somebody was still going to have to teach him another lesson.

After we got back, I was covered in stings—it wasn't even funny. I could barely move for several days. Ruby had to help me put ointment on my back.

"Ow… ow. Ow, ow…" I muttered as she applied the ointment.

"Oh, don't be a cry baby," Yang said.

"Easy for you to say…"

"Hey, I got stung by a bee once."

"Yea once. Try fifty times in one day."

At that moment there was a knock on the door. Blake answered it. It was Ren.

"How's he holding up?" He asked.

"He'll be ok," she responded.

"OW!"

"Sorry…"

"It's a wonder he even survived. Normally even twenty stings can be enough to kill, even with the protection of an aura."

"Yea, I guess he's pretty tough, huh," Blake responded, a bit suspicious.

The truth is, if it weren't for the fact that I have a natural resistance to poison from being a phoenix, I probably would have died.

"Most definitely. Either way, I just wanted to let you all know, I remembered that dragonbees can be easily neutralized with electricity."

"Yea, thanks Ren, just in the nick of time." I called from inside of the room, "Ow…"

From that day on, I've always despised bees—especially dragonbees. But, their honey is still delicious.

End of CH 7


	8. CH 8: Melting the Ice

**Hello there! This is your author speaking. Since this is a shorter chapter, I'd like to preface it with another update. But don't worry, there are some longer ones coming up in the next couple of weeks!**

 **We're only about a month away from the end of volume one (hard to believe, huh?), but don't worry, the story will be back with volume 2 and probably even a volume 3!**

 **I've also got something else in store for you guys: I won't spoil too much, but it's called "The Untold Stories of PR." PR obviously stands for** _ **the Phoenix and the Rose**_ **. I'm not sure yet when it will be released, but probably not until later, as it does have spoilers for some of the future volumes.**

 **This will be a series that explains some of the things that happen off-book from a multitude of perspectives. In the main story, I'm limited to Zaine's perspective, which is fine. But in this story, you'll get to see some of the things that happen out of his knowledge and find out what some of the other characters are thinking and feeling.**

 **Sorry for rambling, but I'd again like to thank all of you who have taken the time to read my story, and I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

CH 8: Melting the Ice

As usual, I was spending some downtime one day just relaxing on the roof, when I got an unexpected visitor. There's no way in hell I could have ever predicted what was about to happen next.

"Ruby, have you seen Zaine anywhere?" Weiss asked, barging into the room, quite upset.

Yang and Blake weren't around, and Ruby was sitting on her bed studying.

"I dunno, why'd you need-pfft what is that?!" Ruby responded, having noticed the poster Weiss was holding.

"This is nothing but blasphemy, and propaganda, it's-it's not funny!" Weiss said, holding up the poster.

"mrmph… Hahaha! I'm sorry it's, it's just-" Ruby could barely even speak straight. In fact, tears were forming in her eyes.

"Stop it! Just tell me where he is, now."

"Did you check the roof?" Ruby asked after collecting herself momentarily.

"Ugh, typical," Weiss responded as she walked up to the window which was partially open and opened it all the way.

She climbed out, using glyphs as walking pads and glanced about until she spotted me. She proceeded to approach me, walking on glyphs and stopped in front of me.

"Hey!" she yelled right at me from practically point blank.

I was half asleep and daydreaming something so she caught me off guard.

"Woah-wha-" I shook and almost fell, but caught myself. "Oh it's just you."

"You think this is funny?" She asked angrily, holding up the poster.

I looked and saw what looked like a pompous, pissed, chibi version of Weiss screaming at a group of scared chibi children, who were crying. The poster read, "WHEN YOUR NICE DAY BECOMES AN ICE DAY, DON'T LET THE ICE QUEEN KEEP YOU DOWN." I immediately burst out laughing, giving a definite and honest answer to her question.

"That's hilarious! Hahaha-"

"It is not! Cut it out! This is just a bunch of profane and ill advised… malarkey! I swear your devilish tricks have gone too far! You better clean this up or I swear I'll-" She approached like she was about to push me off or something.

"Woah, woah, take it easy! You think I did this? No way, even I'm not that clever." She crossed her arms and frowned. "…But, since it is bothering you so much, I guess I can help you sort it out."

"It really wasn't you?" She didn't seem convinced yet.

"Yes, I swear, on the honor of my boomerang that I didn't do it."

That seemed to be enough for her. Despite how dumb it sounded, I was serious, and she knows that I care about my boomerang. She let out a sigh.

"I just can't think of who would want to do something like this. This goes far beyond a simple practical joke, it's humiliating."

 _Just wait until she sees what I have in store for Cardin Winchester…_ I thought as she sat down on the roof next to me.

"You know, humility isn't all that bad sometimes," I responded honestly.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She must have thought for a second that it was a sarcastic jab of some kind. To be honest, I'm surprised that it wasn't.

"Nothing, nothing, just a thought. As far as who's behind it, do you have any idea of someone who might have a bone to pick with you in any way?"

"Well…"

"Aka, anyone you insulted, mouthed off to, harra-"

"I get it! ...I don't know…"

"Really," I said plainly.

 _If Weiss hasn't pissed anyone off even in just the last few days, I'll swan dive off of this roof_ , I thought.

"Ok, well maybe a few."

Thankfully I didn't have to.

"Great. Then you should start by apologizing to each of them individually."

"What? Why should I apologize to the suspects? Shouldn't we interrogate them or something?"

"Suspects? Don't you mean victims?"

"I'm the victim!" She held up the poster again.

"Listen, it doesn't matter who the victim is, you should still apologize. If you respond to this with humility and forgiveness, whoever did it will stop, and you'll prove that the poster is a lie. If you respond with anger and malice, you'll only make it true, and that's exactly what they want."

"You-I-... I never really thought about that way."

"You might be cold, condescending, and rude at times…"

"Hey!"

"But you're not a bad person. In fact, you're one of the better ones I know. For once introduce some others to the real you, the one underneath the cold exterior."

"...Are you being serious?"

"Of course, why would I joke about something like this?"

"Well with you, it can be hard to tell."

"I'm being 100% honest here."

"...You have a lot more insight than I thought… I guess you're not a moron after all… you're still a doofus though. Regardless, thanks for the advice."

 _Wait, did Weiss just thank me? The stars must be aligned or something_ I thought. I was so surprised that I barely noticed her hand was touching mine. At that moment the sun started setting, and we had the perfect view of it. There was a moment of pause as we both just gazed into the sky. I started talking, thinking that maybe I could melt some of the ice.

"You know, sometimes I like to just forget… and get away from problems, just long enough to feel an afternoon breeze, or watch the sunset…"

At this point I noticed that her hand was on mine and I trailed off, blushing slightly. _Wait, what is going on here?!_ I thought as I looked at Weiss for a second. She was staring at the sunset. If I didn't know better I'd say she was daydreaming herself. I decided not to wreck the moment and watched the rest of the sunset.

As soon as it finished, Weiss looked over at me. I think it was at this moment that she realized what was going on. Her face immediately turned beat red. She pulled her hand back and stood up.

"Well, I should probably get going if I still want to catch them… you know, to apologize or whatever," she said as she headed back to the window. On her way she stopped and turned back, saying, "Thanks. Not just for the advice, but you know, it was… nice." After that, she went back inside the window.

I didn't have any words; I was still a bit surprised by this all. I stayed on the roof a bit longer as night began to fall, thinking on what had just happened and what I was going to do. _Why do I keep doing this? Why do I keep letting people get so close? I'm not the same this time around, I can feel it…_ Here I thought she was going to maim me and we end up watching a sunset together. What a strange world it is we live in.

End of CH 8


	9. CH 9: Inspiration Hits Like a Brick

CH 9: Inspiration Hits Like a Brick

I wasn't sure what my thoughts were on what I was doing this Friday, to be honest. But regardless, I decided to make myself look at least half-decent. I was sitting in the courtyard waiting (what, I can't be early to something for a change?), when Ruby finally came by.

"Hey Zaine! Ready to hit the city?"

"You bet, ready to hit it hard."

"I've got a map this time!"

She pulled out a sheet of paper that had—a phrase on it? It read, 'Hang in there' and there was a picture of a cat in a tree.

"Um, Ruby, that's a cat poster."

"Oh… um," She fumbled about in her pockets a bunch then pulled something else out, "This is it!" This time it was an actual map.

"Alright…" I said, smiling. She gave this surprised look as we started walking towards the city.

"Is everything ok?" I asked her.

"Yea, it's just that—well, you don't normally dress this nice."

"Oh, um, yea sorry about that."

"No don't be, you look—really cool."

"Thanks..." _Doesn't this usually happen the other way around?_

"Hey, you look pretty nice too."

"Thanks, but… this is what I always wear."

"Then I guess you always look nice." She smiled and blushed a bit. "Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

"That is what they always say. Still, it is kinda weird though, not gonna lie, seeing you so spiffy," she said in a more playful tone, which was soon cut off when she leaned in, having caught my aroma, "And is that cologne?"

"Wha—no—maybe… what? A guy can't just dress nice for a change?"

"*giggle* I'm just messing with you. Weird or not, I like it." I simply responded with a smile. "I just hadn't thought that this could be… *gulp* and actual date..."

"You say something?"

"Uh—nope!" I'm pretty sure I caught her blushing again, but I didn't quite catch what she said.

We managed to find quite a few places that were showcasing weapons. For a city that was supposed to be at peace, there sure was a lot. I guess the combat school next door was part of it.

This is the part where I'd insert the montage of Ruby and I going in and out of various museums, shops, and etc. We saw a lot of crazy stuff. I guess I'll describe some of it.

We found this place with all sorts of transforming weapons and almost got ourselves seriously hurt by messing with them. Just a hint of advice, never hold a collapsible quarterstaff so that it's pointing towards your gut. We even got kicked out of this one place because we accidentally knocked down a chandelier with a crossbow. Yea, places like those which have weapons on display for people to handle really don't seem that safe in my opinion.

This one place was selling combat masks and armor, and we had quite a few laughs scaring each other with bizarre masks. We found a place that let you fight training dummies with weapons to try them out. Ruby found this scythe with a swinging blade and did some serious work with it. I have to say, I was pretty amazed. Watching her gave me an idea. I'm not gonna lie, it hit me like a brick.

There were way too few boomerangs around. I guess it's too elite of a weapon type for most people. I tried out a couple boomerangs, swords, and other weapons, but none of them had the right feeling to them. I was planning on making my own weapon, so I figured that wasn't a problem.

One thing that really surprised me and even somewhat scared me was how many weapons I was able to use. _Did the weapon training from my past lives carry over or something?!_ I was also surprised by how much fun this was. I've always been interested in weapons, but I've never had this much fun just browsing. Well, things changed from fun to full of action in not too long when something happened at one of our last visits.

"Here it is!" Ruby was dragging me by the arm.

"Woah, is this a smithy—in downtown Vale?"

"You bet it is! It's the best around. This is where I come to do maintenance on crescent rose if she ever gets damaged. It's the perfect place for you to get a weapon forged."

Before we could discuss any further, there was an explosion and the sound of panic. *BAANGGG!* What looked like a small dump truck crossed with a motor-bike came barreling out of the side of the building. There were two lunatics riding it and hollering…

"WOOOO! Hot diggedy dog!" _What the hell?_ Was my mind's only response.

"Get back here, you scoundrels! Urgh... we're all doomed now," The shopkeeper said as he ran out of the building, unable to keep up with them. He stopped just short of us and started panting.

"What happened, what did they take?" Ruby asked him.

"They took the energy core we were working on for a high-class customer. I hate to think what they'll be able to do with it."

Ruby and I looked at each other.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" She asked me.

"Time to do something reckless," I responded.

"We'll get it back, sir don't worry," she told the shopkeeper as we started running after them. "Are we really gonna catch them and get it back? We don't have a vehicle," she said to me as we ran, immediately beginning to worry herself.

"We will soon," I said, already holding out Crimson Ember's keys. I had recently installed an auto-retrieval system. I had just pressed the button to call it over. "Ruby, use your speed. Don't lose track of them. I'll catch up as soon as I can. I've got an idea."

Ruby nodded and dashed ahead of me. I parkour style made my way up to the top of a nearby rooftop then blinked onto the tallest one I could see. I watched closely, following the red streak that was Ruby. It looked like she didn't quite have perfect control of her speed. There was a lot of uncontrolled zig-zagging and bouncing, but that was an issue for another time.

Once she started to catch up with them, I used everything I had to blink down. I landed on the street, right in their path. _Those lunatics aren't going to stop,_ I thought as they only accelerated. I pulled out my boomerang and prepared to do something really stupid.

Right as they were about to hit me, I pivoted to the side, holding the boomerang's blade out. I was trying to clip their tires, but they were thicker than I thought. I ended up getting caught. My boomerang came loose from the tire after I was spun practically into submission, but I managed to grab on somewhere else to prevent myself from becoming a skid mark on the road. I was holding onto the end of the dumper for dear life, while I felt like my arms were nearly being ripped off as I was pulled along. I started to climb my way towards the front of the dumper, hoping to cause some problems for the drivers.

"Uh, oh Bonnie, looks like we got ourselves a rat!" Said a female voice, with an accent I couldn't describe.

"You know what we do to rats, now don't ya Clyde?" Said a lanky sounding male voice.  
"We give em the boot!"

I braced myself for the inevitable attempt to scrape me off that would follow. What I didn't expect was for a literal boot to be launched right at me.

I spun to the side to avoid the boot, but another came and hit me in the hand, causing me to lose my grip. I managed to barely grab on to the very end of the dumper, back to where I had started.

 _Any second now, come on…_ I thought as I once again inched my way towards the front of the vehicle. Another boot flew past me and I knew it was only a matter of time before I'd get knocked off. At that moment, a gunshot struck one of the tires and the whole rig started to skid and lost control a bit. I glanced over to see Ruby, who managed to get ahead using speed and a shortcut. She managed to pop the tire with a shot from crescent rose and it was definitely doing a good job of slowing them down.

"Dammit! Tire's done blew!" Clyde croaked.

"Well, then time fer plan B," Bonnie responded.

"Thought we'd already used plan B."

"Then it's plan C."

"Iddn't plan C the one where we use yer grandma's puddin'?"

"No! That's plan G, and it ain't usin' the puddin' it's going to get puddin' if plans A through F don't work out!"  
"I want puddin, Bonnie! Can we get puddin' anyway?"  
"You know yer supposed to be on a diet, Clyde!" She was kind of a big girl…  
"Dammit, Bonnie, jus' this one time!"  
"Activate fly-mode and maybe I'll think about it!"

They sounded like a redneck married couple from Vacuo that just got deported. Listening to them argue was painful, especially at a time like this, but while they weren't paying attention, I managed to get to the front and detach my boomerang from the tire.

 _Wait, did they say fly-mode?!_ I thought, panic entering my mind. As I looked up, I saw a fourth and final boot sail through the air, and it nailed me in the face. At the same time, the rig took off into the sky, wheels folding in. I finally lost my grip as it soared into the air, but I looked back just in time to see crimson ember, my trusty motorcycle closing in behind. I managed to grab on and keep from being scraped across the street.

 _Right on cue_ , I thought as I pulled myself up. I saw Ruby on the side of the road motioning so I swung by and slowed down.  
"Jump on!" I called out as I slowed down to pass by her.

She looked pretty winded, but she managed to do a dash to get on and grab ahold of me.

"*pant* so much running... *pant* they're flying away! How are we gonna catch them?"

"Hey, we can fly too, remember?"

"Oo, yea! Guess I'm finally getting that ride you promised, huh?"

"Yep. Just hold on tight!" As it turns out, I had just managed to get enough fuel for another flight the other day.

As we sped up, I activated the flight mechanism on Crimson Ember and it lifted off the ground, leading us into an aerial pursuit of the thieves. We were catching up really quick, thanks to the jet boosters.

"Wait, why didn't you bring this thing in the first place?"

"...I thought it would be more fun if we walked…"

"What could be more fun than riding a flying motorcycle?"

"It's well—"

"Zaine?"

"*sigh* ok, I was going to surprise you. But I guess we both got a surprise, huh?"

"Yea I guess we did… hey we've almost caught up! How are you planning on stopping them?"

"Uh, I haven't quite thought that part through yet."

At this point, we got so close that we could hear them arguing again:

"Dammit, Bonnie they're closin' in faster than a jackrabbit out of a skillet!"

"Give em' the boot!"

"I already used all of em' unless y'all got a third foot!"

"Not that boot! Shoot their asses!"

"Oh, right."

With that, Clyde pulled out a massive handgun and started firing. I managed to swerve out of the way of the shots, but they kept coming. I was a bit uneasy considering that we were flying over a large body of water. I HATE water—large amounts of it at least.

"Ruby, I thought of something."

"Great, what is it—wait, aren't I usually the one who comes up with a plan?"

"I guess, but—well, I've got an idea. I've got some dust ammunition in the storage unit back there. If you use it, it should only take one shot. Think you can hit them?"

"I can sure try!" She pulled out crescent rose and tried to aim, but there was nothing to support it. "I can't keep it steady!" she called out as crescent rose flailed around unsafely as a result of me swerving to dodge another round of bullets.

"Use me as a ballast!" I said, realizing the need for a desperate option.

"What do you mean? How'd that help?"  
"Hook me with the blade—then it won't move."

"Are you kidding?! I could cut your arm off!"

"It's the only way, and you know it. It's alright. All you need is one shot. I trust you Ruby," I said, making eye contact with her for a moment.

"...I—Ok, just, stay still." She hooked crescent rose onto my shoulder, the tip of the scythe blade sinking into the front of the seat. "Are you sure about this?"

"I'm sure. If it was anyone else, I wouldn't even be suggesting it. But I know you can do this Ruby. I believe in you, no matter what happens."

"...Wow—I—well, here goes nothing then…"

She took aim very carefully, as I weaved away from the poorly aimed shots coming at us, found an opening, and fired. Just as the shot went off, I backed up a bit in my seat to absorb the blow. It was painful and I could feel the blade piercing through my aura. However, I managed to back up just enough to keep my arm attached.

Looking ahead, the shot went true; in fact, it went straight into their tailpipe. It was an insane crack-shot if I ever saw one. The fire dust in the bullet ignited their engine, and the whole rig exploded. The two thieves were sent flying, landing in the water below. Lucky for them that we were flying over a lake.

"Woah! Nice shot—NGH," I said as I slowed us down, while also reeling in pain. We came to a bit of an abrupt stop, but we both managed not to fall off.

"Are you ok?!" Ruby asked, both shocked that her shot was so good and terrified that she may have severed my arm.

"I'm good. Still attached!" I said lifting up my arm with a half-smile that was cut off by my sharp pain.

I lowered us down to the surface of the water, using the gravity dust in the bike to keep us hovering. Bonnie immediately popped up from the surface and tried to swim away frantically. Ruby and I just looked at each other and barely contained our laughter as we slowly hovered up to him while he frantically doggy paddled forward at a slower speed looking back and muttering curses.

Clyde, on the other hand, was flailing around in the water screaming, "Halp! I can't swim! I'm drownin'! HALP!" while in reality, she was only in a few feet of water. Eventually, actual law enforcement showed up and took them away.

I had completely forgotten about the fuel consumption issue and I would pay for it dearly. The HUD displayed a message just as I looked over at it. 'Fuel level at 1%, 0%'

"Oh shi—"

I started but was cut off by Crimson Ember falling out of the air and landing in the water with a splash. Ruby yelped a bit and grabbed onto me as we suddenly fell. The water was only a couple feet deep, so it wasn't too bad, but I hate getting wet, so I wasn't too thrilled. On top of that, submerging Crimson Ember in water wasn't exactly the best thing for it… I hadn't implemented a water mode yet, considering that I prefer to avoid large bodies of water altogether.

"Well, looks like she's going to have to visit the shop again…" I said after we recovered from the shock of the cold water.

Ruby let out a light chuckle. Neither of us were expecting any of this, to be honest.

"Well, at least this means we don't have to take showers today, right?" she said. It was a bit of a stretch, but I agreed.

"Are you hungry or is it just me?" I asked as we waded our way to the shore with Crimson Ember in tow.

"Believe it or not, I could really go for something hardy right about now. You know a place that accepts soaking wet patrons?"

I thought on that for a minute and immediately remembered my go-to place: Doug's Dogs.

"Believe it or not, I've got the perfect place," I responded with a smile.

It wasn't long before local law enforcement arrived, given that we weren't exactly inconspicuous with the whole ordeal. The energy core—wet energy core—was returned to the shopkeeper. Sure, it was damaged, but at least it couldn't be used to make some sort of deadly weapon anymore. I was still scratching my head over who this anonymous 'high class customer' was, but at the moment I was too wet and hungry to think about it too hard.

After Ruby and I managed to get to land with Crimson Ember (don't even ask me how), I parked her in the most inconspicuous spot I could find, given that she was still in flight mode. Together, Ruby and I headed to where I knew Doug's Dog's would be. By now I'd memorized all of the times and places where the Shoppe would be so that I'd never end up wandering about at night trying to find it.

We wrung out our coats as best as we could and made our way to the spot. Most people would be upset at getting their nice clothes 'ruined' but I wasn't too annoyed because I never really wore nice clothes like this anyway. Today was a prime example of why. Doug himself was in the window of his truck, which had several tables set up outside it.

"Is this a food truck?" Ruby asked as we approached.

"Technically it's a travelling shoppe, but, pretty much. Is that ok?"

"Oh yeah, it's pretty cool actually! And believe me, I'd eat anything right now, so…"

"Well, I'll be perfectly honest, that's what I'm usually thinking when I come here, but trust me, the food here is actually really good."

At that moment, we reached the window and Doug greeted me. For some reason he completely glanced over the fact that we were soaking wet. I didn't realize it at the time, but looking back, I'd hate to think how that might have affected his impression of _us_.

"Zaine! How's my favorite customer? I've been wondering when I'd see you again. Glad to see it's not at 3:00 am."

"Hehehe, yeah, I kinda broke that habit. I've been pretty busy lately too."

"I can see that," he said gesturing towards Ruby.

Ruby and I looked at each other and back at him with a sort of we-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about look even though we knew exactly what was going on.

"So, who's your friend here?" He asked.

"I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose. We're on a team together," Ruby responded a bit nervously.

"She's the leader of our team, you know," I started.

"Oh, the Ruby who leads team Rwby! Yea, yea, I remember now. Glad to finally meet you. You know I've heard quite a bit about you from Zaine here."

"Oh have you now?" She responded with a coy grin.

"Eh—Doug, don't get carried away…"

"Anyway, what can I get you two on this fine evening?"

"I'll get my usual. Ruby, how about you."

"Uhh…" she was still staring at the menu, and eventually gave up on figuring it out and just responded, "I'll have what he's having."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "It's reeaally spicy."

"Oh, you think I can't handle it?" She responded confidently, "I'll have you know, I've built up quite the tolerance to spiciness, ever since what happened in forever fall."

"Well then, that's that."

"Alrighty, I'll have that out for you in a jiff," Doug said with a smile. "Hey Dig, Dan, give me two number fours with extra curry and special sauce!"

We took a seat, somehow getting into a conversation about where hot dogs come from. I have to admit, some of Ruby's ideas on the matter, despite being ridiculous, actually made a lot of sense. It's amazing how much a conversation about hot dogs can change your outlook on life.

It didn't take long for our food to get there, and let me just say, Dig, Doug, and Dan really outdid themselves this time. I have a feeling I knew why, and my feelings would be proven correct in due time.

"Wow, that's a hot dog?!" Ruby asked, practically drooling as our food arrived.

Doug brought it himself, and gave me a pat on the back. Ruby immediately took a bite and her reaction was entertaining to watch.

"How do you like it?" Doug asked.

Judging by how her eyes expanded after a couple seconds, I could tell it would be good.

"It's sooo good! It's painful, but I love it!" She said after swallowing.

Her eyes were starting to water and I wasn't sure if it was because of the spiciness or if they were tears of joy. Hey, I almost cried tears of joy the first time I ate Doug's Dog's and I never cry, so that's saying something.

"So, how much do I owe you?" I asked.

"It's on the house today," Doug replied with a smile.

"Woah, seriously?!"

"Definitely! Call it thanks for saving my life that one time."

"Oh man, you don't have to repay me…"

"Why not! I feel like bein' thankful."

"You saved his life?" Ruby asked, while still having a mouthful of food.

"Yea, it's quite the crazy story isn't it Zaine?"

"Doug…"

"Listen, I know you don't like to brag about this kind of stuff, but someone's got to know, you know?"

"*sigh* yea, I guess."

After swallowing, Ruby spoke up again, "C'mon Zaine, I'm really curious to hear it, and if you really want, I'll keep it secret."

She did a mouth zip motion, so I knew she was serious.

"Alright. Remember that terrible smell from a few weeks ago?"

"...Yea."

"Well…"

I explained everything that had happened with the sewers and the grimm. Doug chimed in a couple times with embellishment that I quickly tried to put to rest. Ruby seemed thoroughly entertained, and I was a bit surprised when she told me that she heard about the police report and what the witnesses said after being rescued…

* * *

In breaking news! Just the other night, three civilians who were reported missing have been found and safely returned to their homes. Reports say that they were captured by a grimm which somehow snuck into the city and made its home in the sewers and that a young, unnamed hero came to their rescue, simultaneously destroying the beast. However, why not hear it from the witnesses themselves:

"It was dark, cold, and smelly… It put me in this cocoon thing… I thought I was going to die, but then, he came… he used some sort of throwing weapon, and I couldn't make out much from inside, but he saved me, he saved us all. I just wish I could have learned his name…"

"Well it was somethin' alright! One minute I was in there alley tossin' a bag of trash, next thin' I knew, was in some kind of dungeon! There was slime on the walls, weird lookin' pods like some alien's eggs or somethin'"

"Can you describe the creature?"

"Creature? You mean demon! Damn thing was bigger than any grimm I'd ever seen! Had like a million teeth and billions of these like swords for feet," he said while making a strange motion with his fingers, "Damn-near scariest thing I'd ever seen. Nearly stopped my heart! I can't believe that young man was able to kill it! Most daring thing I've ever seen!"

There you have it. Our story on the daring rescue which took place right here in downtown Vale. The hero has not yet been identified, but whoever you are, the city of Vale, and the families of those you saved thank you immensely for your heroic actions

* * *

"So that was you! That's incredible! I knew you were a hero Zaine!"

"...Oh come one, it wasn't that big of a deal… that old guy was definitely exaggerating. It didn't have a billion legs."

"Who cares how many legs it had! You should be proud. But, why not say anything?"

"Well, I guess I just didn't want all the attention, you know. I just did what any good huntsman would have done. Saving people, and my good friend, should be its own reward."

To be honest, the main reason I wanted to stay quiet was the former and the fact that I like to stay low key, but considering that both are good things anyway, I'm not going to deny that there was a bit of humility at play here.

"...You're so…" Ruby started, but trailed off. Doug spoke up before I could figure out what she was going to say,

"Zaine, I admire that, really, I do. Make sure you finish your training. I'm sure you'll be an amazing huntsman."

"Yea, one of the best. I'll be honored to reach it alongside you," Ruby added.

I think I might have let out a blush with all of the kind things being said to me. Despite the crazy stuff that happened, I considered this day to be one of the best I'd ever had, and still do.

Ruby and I decided to continue exploring Vale on Fridays. Most of the time we didn't even bring a map, but got lost on purpose. Wandering around would give us time to talk, and being lost would make it even more satisfying and rewarding when we managed to find something cool.

If you know where you're going and have everything mapped out, it takes away the surprise, and frankly, a lot of the fun of the trip. Sure there were times when we didn't find an amazing restaurant or store, but we'd always have fun, just being together. Sometimes even the little things, like a cool graffiti tag, or a cool car going by, or even just the feeling of the wind while riding Crimson Ember would make the trip worth it.

I've been questioning myself constantly, saying 'what am I doing?' or 'what is happening to me?' and I'll even continue to do so, but I can say right now that this… this is where and how I truly changed. Phoenix or not, inside my heart, inside my soul, I became something else—something more… something better.

End of CH 9


	10. CH 10: Humiliation

CH 10: Humiliation

So, after everything that happened in Forever Fall Forest, Cardin stopped bothering Jaune, which is great and all, but overall, he was still a jerk to a lot of people. I can understand if someone like Jaune is 'challenged' when it comes to combat, but that's no reason to treat them so atrociously. I was out for an entire day because of my bee stings preventing me from moving much, so, I decided to spend my down time devising a plan to teach Cardin a lesson.

In Prof. Oobleck's class, we learned about a special mechanism used since the 1900s to refine certain potions, dusts, and poisons to increase their potency. I still had some of that special spicy honey left, so, being devious as I am, I decided to make one of my own. It wasn't too difficult—it was 90s tech after all. I kind of kept this one a secret because I wanted it to be a surprise. The machine was a refinery and a compression system. It managed to take an entire jar of spicy honey and condense it into one tiny vial. It took quite a long time for it to finish the process. I checked it every day, and one Monday afternoon, it was finally finished.

 _This is going to be fun_ I thought as I took the vial out.

What's even better is that I knew the perfect way to administer it. The cafeteria was having a special this week where every student got a free pomegranate smoothie. I'm not a huge fan of pomegranates, but I know someone who is. From what Jaune has told me, Cardin is a sucker for the stuff. All I had to do was volunteer at the cafeteria that day and wait for Cardin to arrive…

"How's it hanging?" I said to Yang as she got to the front of the line.

"Don't you mean how's it Yanging?" _There she goes again…_

"Yea, whatever."

"When did you decide to be a lunch lady?"

"Ha-ha, very funny. But, this isn't a permanent job. I'm just volunteering for one day."

I leaned over and started whispering, "You know that jerk, Cardin Winchester, who was bullying Jaune all the time?"

"Yea…" she said, drawn out. Then, her face changed into a sly grin. "Oh, are you planning something devious?"

"…Hehe. Just make sure Cardin knows that they've got his favorite pomegranate smoothies in the cafeteria today."

"You're not gonna poison him, are you?"

"Not—exactly. You'll just have to wait and see."

It wasn't long until Cardin arrived to pick up his smoothie.

"Hey, lunch rats. One smoothie for the naturally gifted please."

 _Oh, you're about to be unnaturally gifted with screaming, Cardin,_ I thought as I went in back to get his smoothie. While nobody else was looking, I emptied the contents of the vial into the smoothie. _If this stuff could make Yang freak out, It'll make Cardin squeal for sure._ I thought as I carried out his smoothie with a smile.

"Here you go, champ." I said as I handed him the spiked smoothie.

"Ha-ha, perfect. Later, lunch rat." He said as he snatched it and walked down the center of the cafeteria towards his table.

That's when the fun started. I guess Yang let the word slip, because team Rwby and Jnpr were both watching from our usual table when Cardin walked by.

Like a pig, Cardin downed the entire smoothie in a matter of seconds. There a was a moment of delay while he crushed the cup and let out some sort of pleased yell like a sports player who just scored something and started laughing along with the rest of his team. But, after just a couple of seconds, his laughter stopped dead in his tracks.

His eyes watered, his face took on the expression of a mortified child, and his entire tone began to shift into a deep, fiery red. You wouldn't believe how red his face got—it gave new meaning to 'the face of team Crdl.' His team asked him what was wrong, and one of them, being Russel, shook his shoulder. At that moment, Cardin flipped out, flailing his arms and screaming like an Orangutan. Russel got smacked and thrown across the cafeteria, landing face-first in someone's bowl of curry.

Cardin's screaming transitioned into intelligible words after a few moments, and what he said put the icing on the cake.

"HOOT! HOOOOT! AHHH! WHAT THE HELL! WHY! WHAT DID THEY PUT IN THIS! MIIIILLK! I NEED MILK! AHHHH!?" As he screamed, Cardin ran around like crazy.

You might think he'd just drink some milk and be ok, right? Well, I made sure that they weren't serving milk in the cafeteria today. In fact, the only thing people had to drink was soda, which is the WORST for trying to stop spiciness. The food they were serving today was also spicy curry, so there was no way for Cardin to get relief.

In a panic, with tears spewing from his eyes, Cardin rushed over to the drinking fountain to try and rinse out his mouth. However, I had also used my mechanical skills to temporarily disable all of the drinking fountains in the entire school. After it didn't work, Cardin rushed into the bathroom and started drinking out of the toilet like a dog. What's even better, he was in such a panic that he didn't even notice that he ran into the girl's bathroom.

There were a couple screams and a few girls ran out, followed by a still beat-red and terrified Cardin, being pursued by an absolutely PISSED Coco, who was hollering death threats that I would not like to repeat, for the sake of my own sanity.

It was probably the most hilarious thing I've ever seen! Just about everyone in the cafeteria was laughing, once they recovered from the initial shock. I'm pretty sure Ruby was literally rolling on the floor laughing. I tried to hold in my laughter at first, but I lost it the second Cardin starting screaming for milk. I doubt that guy will have the self-confidence to bully anyone for a LONG time.

As fun as lunch was, I had something much more serious to deal with that day. It had been a while since I'd done any jobs with Al, and he was starting to get worried about what I'd been up to. In my defense, I had a reason for this inactivity.

I could constantly feel a pressure. The power inside of me was building—I was getting close to the point where I would be forced to choose… I couldn't go out there and use my powers, or soon it would get to the point where I'd end up like every other phoenix and lose control.

I couldn't let that happen… I still had a promise to fulfill, and for once, I was living an actual life… with actual friends. Keeping this dangerous power buried was the only way to keep them safe from it. The more I used my power, the closer I would push myself to the edge. In fact, there were times where I wouldn't have minded ditching the powers forever if I could.

I couldn't risk using unsealing my powers again unless I could figure out a fix, and that meant no missions. But, Al kept giving me messages that this was an important one and that 'new cards were in play.' So, I decided to drop by our old HQ one day when I had free time.

Al owned a bar, and in the basement he had a sort of 'secret lair' of sorts where he kept all of his tech. The place was open, but Al wasn't around, so I figured he was in the basement. I typed the secret code into the elevator (123455555) and it dropped down to level B-2. I leisurely walked into the room where Al was working on something. The second I got close, Al freaked out, thinking I was an intruder for a second, and pulled a gun out of his pants.

"Woah, woah, woah! Al, it's me! It's just me, Zaine!"

"Dammit, Zaine! You haven't shown up for months, and now you just pop in unannounced? Ya can't blame me for being a bit paranoid, man. But seriously, For a guy who literally emits light, you sure know how to stay in the dark for a long time."

"Yea, sorry about that Al, but I need to keep my power a secret right now."

"Yea, yea I get that, you're investigating at Beacon, earning a degree, and whatever, I get it."

"I'm really not sure how long this will take, but it could take years…"

"Well, at least shoot me an update every now and then."

"The thing is… you keep asking me to do jobs, but… I don't know if I can anymore. At least, not like we used to."

"…Wait, am I hearing you correctly? The phoenix dude with nothing to lose and a hate for crime all of a sudden would rather be a student at a school for hunters and huntresses—full time?"

"That's not…. the whole story."

"Listen Zaine, I get it."

"Seriously, you do?" I wasn't convinced.

"You met some girl, didn't you?"

"What?! What the hell makes you think that?"

"Isn't it obvious? I mean come on man, how else does this sort of thing happen?"

"Fine, if you really want to know, it's because I'm losing control!"

"I can kinda see that, man. I lost control plenty of times when I was dating. OH, let me tell you—this one bitch got me to—"

"No, not that kind of control! I'm losing… I'm losing control over my powers."

"Oh, so that's it, huh? What, you afraid to burn the wrong people?"

"…"

"Alright, powers or not, I think you'll like this."

He showed me the completed blueprints for new tech we'd been working on for a while now.

"Wait, these are the grav-boots and mag-gauntlets I told you about before!"

"Right you are. I'm getting pretty close to finishing them. I'm just running into a few problems stabilizing the gravity core." He glanced over at the scorch marks and dents on the walls near his workspace. "But, as soon as I manage to get them working, they'll be pretty useful on your missions."

"Al, I thought I already—"

"Listen, just because you don't got powers anymore, doesn't mean you need to quit. There's plenty you can still do to help. Heck, why do think huntsman and huntresses exist in the first place? Hear me out, alright?"

"…Fine. But I need to be back by tomorrow morning."

"How come?"

"I have a… well, I'm meeting someone for a…"

"Zaine?... Hehe, I knew it."

"Hey, it's not what you think, ok! Stop smirking like that! Dammit man…"

Al gave me the details, and I was off. I asked him what he meant by 'new players' and apparently the enemy had a few new thugs that were stronger than normal.

A couple dust shops in the area had been hit recently, but the one near the docks hadn't, so it was a prime target. Despite avoiding using my powers, I still remained disguised in my shadow cloak, just in case. I had a feeling that whoever this new enemy was, I'd need my powers to fight him—that is, if I ended up needing to fight him.

Al told me I should at least get an idea of what this mystery individual is capable of, but secretly, I was hoping he wouldn't show. But, fate had different plans.

Sure enough, a figure in a black trench-coat and a mask was there. He was taller than me, about six foot. His ocat had a spiked black hood and his entire attire had deep blue highlights.

As soon as he got close, I felt this pain in my chest and felt this heat—I wasn't sure what was going on, but I knew something was wrong. _Who—what is he? This negative aura—is it him, or is it me?_ I thought as I did my best to brush these feelings off and kept watching.

I noticed that he was being followed by several Faunas in white… the White Fang. _So is he a member of the White Fang? Or could he still be connected to Torchwick?_

Whoever the shopkeeper was, he didn't just yield—he fought back. However, I wouldn't call it much of a fight. None of the henchmen even had to make a move. All it took was a few swift moves from the masked man to disarm the shopkeeper and defeat him. He used a couple chains with scythe blades and maces attached to them.

While the White Fang looted the dust, the masked man threw the shopkeeper into the street and was about to do the unthinkable. He paused for a second and looked around, almost like he was… sensing something.

It gave me the chance to think, _No…! I can't hide, I can't let people die because I'm too afraid to face my fate. Powers or not, I'm not gonna sit here and watch an innocent man die!_

With that I jumped from the roof and threw my boomerang. It deflected the weapon the masked man was using, knocking it out of his hand. I landed, did a roll and caught my boomerang. The man reeled the chain attached to his chain-scythe back in and grabbed the weapon. I could hear him chuckling. The shopkeeper scurried away from him and got behind me.

"Run," I told him. The shopkeeper nodded, and then made a run for it down the street.

At this point, I got a closer look at my enemy. The mask he wore was dark black with crimson lines and a sharp tip coming out almost like a plague doctor mask. I couldn't make out anything behind the mask, not even his eyes.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

"I could ask you the same," he replied in a deep foreboding voice that gave me chills. It was obviously disguised, just like mine.

"What are doing with the White Fang?"

"You ask too many questions."

With that, he swung his chain like a whip. A mace that was on the ground to the side all of a sudden launched at me like a cannonball. I dove out of the way and responded by splitting my boomerang and firing at him with firing at him with both parts. He spun the scythe chain to create a shield and deflected every shot, while just walking towards me.

Meanwhile, another scythe came in behind me, following the movement I made to avoid the mace. It struck me in the shoulder and sent me reeling. I caught myself just as the mace came back. I wasn't going to let one blow slow me down. I decided to close the gap while outrunning it and went for a melee attack. I thrusted one of my blades in front of me to stop his scythe and turned to strike with the other one. He pulled me with the chain I had hooked and I was barely able to keep my composure before the mace came around. He pulled me into it, but I managed to blink and get behind him.

I went for a flurry of blows, yet he reacted quickly and pulled his chains back around to block most of my hits. After a furious exchange, he finally got the upper hand and knocked me away from melee range. I landed on my feet and skidded back.

"Is that really all you can do? Where's that power I've heard so much about?" He asked me coyly.

I grimaced and clutched my weapon. _I can't fight him like this… but the way it seems, it's like he wants me to use my power. Who the hell is he? How does he know? This couldn't just be from the police reports and sightings… he knows something._

"Who are you? What do you know about me?!"

He cracked a devilish grin.

"More than even you. I can't wait to show you…. Just how alike we are."

 _Alike? What the hell is he talking about?_ I asked myself.

To my horror, the question was immediately answered. He held his hand out and it began to glow… not with light, but with darkness—a black and blue flame. He launched it straight at me. I dodged in time, but it left a massive scorch mark in the sidewalk.

He launched several more. I couldn't dodge them all—the last one hit, but I barely blocked. The heat wasn't like regular fire, which I could easily withstand; it was full of negative energy. Even through my weapons and body armor, it brought me to my knees. When I looked up, he was entering a ship. I was barely able to stand up in time to see it taking off.

"See you later, ember," He called out as the ship disappeared behind the clouds above.

 _What kind of an insult was that supposed to be…?_

I couldn't do anything but watch as the ship escaped. I fired at it a few times, but it wasn't enough. I was completely helpless without my powers… but with someone like him around, I couldn't just let this plan continue…

I heard a sound and felt heat from behind me. I turned around to notice that the building behind me had caught fire. That fire… could he somehow be connected to the woman from the docs that night? Or…

What really worried me was what he said about us being alike. _Could he really be like me…? No… it can't be. I'm the last phoenix, right?_ As I thought this, I heard sirens. The shopkeeper must have called the police, because they were swarming. The fire department was on route as well.

I managed to blink into an alley and get away, not before some headlights hit me. One of the cops got a glimpse of me, but I didn't think it would matter much… I managed to follow some more alleys and get a safe distance away. I thought I was in the clear, but someone got in my way. There, in the alley, stood a man. I was about to smokescreen and blink away, when…

"Wait! Please, don't run! I mean no harm."

"..." I paused and waited...

"You might not think so, but you're a hero."

"I'm no hero."

"You were to a man I once knew."

"You have no idea what I am. Who are you?"

"Lukas, Lukas Bowdyn. That's my name. And I'd bet that I know more than anyone else. I've spent my entire life seeking something that I never even thought was real... and now, here we are. I thought I'd never find you, with how long you've been inactive…"

"You've been seeking… me? So you're the one that's been following me all this time?"

"Have you ever heard the tale of the phoenix and the dragon?"

"...!"

I didn't respond with words, but my mind was in shock. The phoenix and the dragon was an old 'fairytale' that almost nobody knew about. It was one of the only records of my race… my race and another—one which I was relieved no longer existed.

"It's quite an old one, but it was my uncle's favorite… he was the only family I ever knew. But, he disappeared—into ash, along with his prized possession…" I reeled back a bit and clutched my sword. _How does he know all of this?!_ I thought, surprised and a bit confused. "I see it fits you well. I presume you're the original owner."

I stepped back and drew my boomerang. I had a reason to be paranoid here. I had no idea what this guy wanted. However, I was about to find out.

"Please, relax. I'm not here to unmask you, or even ask you of anything, but to give you a message."

"A message?"

"It was my uncle's dying wish for me to tell you that… you… are not alone."

"...!"

"And, don't give up hope. I might not know at all what you're going through, but I know that you can change the world for the better. My uncle believed it and so do I."

"So that's it?"

"I believe so. All this effort over almost two years, and that's it."

"I don't understand…"

"You will someday, and hopefully, so will I. I guess I'll be off, to continue exploring the seemingly impossible. It was a pleasure meeting you, Scorch. Perhaps we'll cross paths again someday."

"Perhaps… and the name's not Scorch."

"Not by day, but what you do at night, and what you leave behind, makes it fit."

He was referring to the scorch marks that I always left behind whenever I used my powers. I guess 'Scorch' is what people had been calling me.  
"..."

With that, he left the alley and walked away. I didn't hesitate to leave myself, still confused about everything that was just dropped on me.

My mind was racing as I headed back to Beacon. _Someone pieced it together?! Who was this uncle of his? Could it have even been… me?! No way, it takes a lot longer for me to regenerate than that. And if I'm not alone, that means… there is another phoenix out there somewhere… could it be the same masked man… it better not… dammit…_

I tried not to let it bother me, because I didn't want to worry the others, but whatever or whoever that masked man was, his effect on me was going to be worse than I could have ever imagined. And as it turns out, it wouldn't be long until my entire team was all dragged knee deep into this whole mess.

End of CH 10


	11. CH 11: Scorch

CH 11: Scorch

Ever since that night, I've been plagued with dreams… unpleasant dreams. I'd call them nightmares, but these were in a league all their own. Usually when I dream, I'm seeing things from my other lives, but lately, I'd been constantly replaying that encounter… and then I saw some things that couldn't have happened… that I could never let happen.

I'd always felt that my power made me too strong, and that my challenge wasn't being too weak, but being unable to control it… but now, knowing there was someone out there with the same, if not more power, and the ability to control it and use it for evil intentions… it was tearing me up inside. I kept seeing him, destroying everything I cared about. I felt powerless, despite the fact that my powers were still only the draw of a sword away.

However, amidst the pain and terror in these dreams, I saw something else—a light. It was standing there, telling me to get up, to find answers, and to fight. It was that man… Lukas Bowdyn. It wouldn't be long before I was forced to get to the bottom of this, to keep the situation from getting worse, and the wrong people from getting involved.

It was a sunny Friday afternoon, a perfect time to do something fun for a change, yet somehow, Weiss managed to convince the entire team to head down to the docks to 'greet' the new students visiting from Vacuo for the Vital Festival. It was pretty obvious that she really just wanted to spy on them to get an upper hand in the tournament. Either way, I figured it couldn't be too bad… although, I didn't have the greatest experiences with docks recently. Also, as Ruby pointed out, they smell like dead fish.

I was a bit leery considering that the docks were pretty close to the scene of last night's… episode. I was also a bit quiet, given what I was dealing with. I trailed a bit behind the group, thinking hard about what I was going to do. I might be able to stay up one night without a problem, but even the phoenix needs to get sleep eventually.

I figured nobody would notice, as I'm apparently quiet just as much as I am annoying (According to what Weiss once said). However, as it turns out, I'm not as good at hiding emotion as I thought, and there's one particular person I know who is much more observant than anyone gives her credit for.

As we walked, Ruby slowed down and trailed back alongside me. She knew me better than anyone else on the team, so it's no surprise she figured something was off. I just wish I could have done a better job at hiding my emotions-even when asleep.

"So, no crack at Weiss today?"

"...Uh, nope."

"I figured if anyone would be against letting her drag us out here, it'd be you." _Well, she's got that right,_ "What's going on? You're usually a lot more, you know, Zaine-ey."

"Unconventional and idiosyncratic?" I think she meant like myself, not actually 'zany,' but to be honest, it's not too far off.

"Uh... "

"Nevermind... I'm fine, really."

"Are you sure? You haven't been having weird dreams or anything?"

"Wait, how do you—"

"I might have… um, watched you while you were sleeping last night—not on purpose, that would be really creepy, just you know, I woke up and saw you… sweating and groaning and yea I should stop describing this right now."

"*Sigh* ever since—well, I just had you know… I just had a—um—unpleasant dream…" _What is wrong with me? I'm usually much better at talking. And what—what am I supposed to say now?_

"...Want to talk about it?"

"Um... " I saw flashes of terrible images in my head and they made up my mind, "Honestly, not really. They're just dreams; they can't hurt me."

"They can if you let them. Just know that if you ever feel alone, or scared, you've got a team—friends who will have your back. You don't always have to be the tough guy you know. It's ok to ask for help," she gave me a nudge and smiled as she said the last part.

"Yea, you're right…" _But doesn't that make me wrong?_

At that moment, we all noticed a crime scene… it was one quite familiar to me.

"Woah," Ruby said as we looked at it. The entire team approached it, so naturally, I did as well.

"What happened here?" Ruby asked one of the officers.

"Robbery. Second dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle," he replied as he walked away, farther into the crime scene.

"That's terrible…" Yang said.

Ruby was looking at the crime scene, and like I already said, she is much more observant than people give her credit for.

"Hey… look at that," she said pointing out the scorch marks left behind on the pavement.

"Where do you think those came from?" I asked, trying to play dumb.

"Probably from dust. We're right next to the same dust shop that was robbed," Weiss cracked.

I sooo wished I could tell her how wrong she was, but I was playing dumb after all, so I had to just hold it in for now.

"Hey, did anybody see a guy with a cloak, possibly on fire?" Ruby asked one of the detectives. _...Dammit, she really wants to find out who he—I am, doesn't she?_ I thought.

"Yea, I saw him just for a second. If you ask me, I think that vigilante ain't helpin.' Just leavin' more of a mess for us to clean up."

Ruby didn't look like she agreed with his opinion.

"Vigilante—isn't that just a rumor?" Yang asked.

"Of course not. Don't you ever watch the news?" Weiss snapped.

"Knowing Yang, probably not," I said.

Yang shot me a look at first but then just shrugged. I guess I was right.

"I saw him with my own eyes. He's real. And he's not a vigilante—he's a hero," Ruby said.

"A hero who isn't very careful, and frankly not that friendly with local law enforcement."

"That underpaid cop doesn't know what he's saying," I said without thinking.

"Well, he had a point. Judging by the half burnt building," Weiss said. Ruby opened her mouth to say something, but someone else beat her to the punch.

"Except that Scorch isn't the one responsible for these marks."

We turned toward the unfamiliar voice to see a man in light blue dress shirt with a gray vest, black pants, and a gold tie. His hair was a deep brown with lighter colored highlights. He had some sort of CSI kit and was examining the scorch marks.

"Excuse me?" Weiss responded.

"Scorch?" Ruby asked, not having heard the name before. She was a bit intrigued, but I didn't notice.

"Apologies, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Lukas, Lukas Bowdyn."

 _It's the same guy from last night!_ I thought _, I don't think he knows who I am, so I should just continue to play dumb… it's almost starting to feel natural at this point._ I was almost starting to sympathize with how Weiss thought of me.

"I'm Weiss. Weiss Schnee," She said it in a sort of mocking tone.

"I'm Yang."

"Blake."

"Zaine."

"Wait a minute… you're that guy who investigates ridiculous stories!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Uhh… yes, quite quick to jump to that topic as always, aren't you Miss Rose. Pleasure seeing you again, anyway."

"Wait, you two know each other?" Weiss stated, a bit surprised.

"Yea, he interviewed me that one time a few months back after my run in with that Torchwick guy. But he kept asking about—"

"Yes, it's been awhile, hasn't it? For any of you who aren't yet aware, I'm a private investigator who specializes in studying and proving the impossible. However, most know me as the weirdo who interviews the crazies and runs down rabbit holes for a living."

"Sounds like a fun job," Ruby said plainly.

"So then, why are you here exactly?" Weiss asked.

"Do you know who was behind this?" Blake added.

"I'm not as concerned with who as I am with what. You see, normally the police won't let me near such a crime scene, seeing as I'm basically considered Moses of the nutjobs. But, evidently I was right this time. This individual, who we've code named 'Scorch' has been sighted by one too many people."

 _And here I thought I was being discreet. It had to be the civilians that I saved… not much I can do about that,_ I thought.

"I have some theories as to his origin and the nature of his abilities that could help me to—well, it's a long story to get into."

"Um… ok." _Scorch… that's a name I haven't heard in a while,_ I thought sarcastically upon hearing the name again.

I still thought they could have come up with a better name for me, even after Lukas had explained it. Scorch just sounds so… cliché. Well, on the bright side, it couldn't be worse than anythingYang would think up.

"Scorch huh? That sounds… hot!" Ruby said, showing her intrigue. _I take it back. Scorch is a fantastic name._ ... What?

"C'mon Ruby, leave the bad jokes to me," Yang told her.

"How do you know this fire wasn't his?" Weiss asked.

"Well, clearly he's not the type of person that would burn down a building, right?" Blake suggested.

"Presumably, but there's also the fact that the burn patterns are all wrong. Scorch's burns show more signs of… restraint. These flames were aimed to kill. They also contain traces of a highly unstable kagebutain component, one that I've never found in Scorch's marks."

"Who the what now?" Yang asked.  
"Kagebutain. It's a very dangerous chemical that causes negativity to anyone it's exposed to. Whoever made these flames, they weren't a happy camper, I can tell you that much."

"Why exactly are you telling us all of this?" I asked, finally speaking up. He looked me straight in the eyes.

"I don't know to be honest. I just got this feeling that you needed to know. Call it intuition. Anyway, I should be off." he packed up his kit and then handed me a card. "Here's my card. Contact me if you see anything… out of the ordinary. I'm always game to help out a couple of young heroes who need it. Cheers."

With that he walked away.

"See ya…" Ruby said.

She sounded like she would have liked to ask him some more questions, but didn't know exactly what to say.

As soon as he left, we overheard a conversation going on between two of the detectives:

"They left all the money again!"

"Yea, just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much dust?"

"I dunno, you know what I mean?"

"You thinkin' the uh, White Fang?"

"Yea, I'm thinkin' we don't get paid enough."

"What you think about the dude in the trench coat?"

"Never heard of 'em."

"The guy in the cloak?"

"Yea, seen him… If you ask me, them vigilantes are just as much of a problem, ain't

helpin' us one bit."

Hearing that detective complain about 'vigilantes' again really peeved me. _Those cops are idiots if they really think that. I was the one doing all the work,_ I thought.

"If you ask me, he barely seems any better than the ones committing the crime," Weiss stated.

"And what exactly makes you say that?" Blake asked with a bit of sass.

"Just take a look at what he leaves behind! Destruction, fire, it's blatant disregard for public property. Not to mention that he's barely making a difference."

You'd think that I'd ask where the hell this was coming from, but A: I did sort of leave a mess behind sometimes, despite stopping crime bosses, B: I wasn't making as much of a difference as I would have hoped, considering that every criminal I took down just got replaced… I tried to cut off the head of the operation, but it was like fighting a hydra. Every time I cut one off, more would just appear. And, C: It's Weiss.

"He just said that this wasn't his. And didn't you hear him say that he saved lives? What does property matter in comparison?"

"It's not just property! Fire hurts people. And not just flames, but angering the people responsible without actually stopping them, hurts people. It's just adding to the chaos."

"At least he's someone trying to make a difference. Nobody's paying him, and he's using the power he has for what he believes to be good. That sounds pretty heroic."

To be honest, I was pretty surprised to see that Blake was the one defending Scorch and not Ruby. It wouldn't be long before I remembered why.

"I'm not saying that it's wrong to make a difference. He's just going about it the wrong way. Force and these types of attacks, only put people in danger. It doesn't make him a hero—it makes him dangerous, just like them."

As annoyed as I was by her stab at me—*cough*—Scorch, I had this feeling that, although I hate to admit it, she was right. That crusade of mine had gone too far, and had accomplished little. For every person I saved, there was another I had put in harm's way. That was part of why I stopped.

I also had an idea of why she might be so annoyed. The property damage I caused to the Schnee dust company in my battles was barely made up for by the dust I was able to save. I was trying to stop criminals, not necessarily help the company. I probably caused a lot of headaches for the owner of the Schnee dust company, which couldn't have made things easier for Weiss. Before they could continue, I tried to change the subject to avoid an all-out quarrel.

"*Cough* vigilante's and fires aside, you all heard that part about the White Fang and the dude in the trench coat, right?" I added in.

Unfortunately all I did was make things between Weiss and Blake even worse. As it would turn out, the White Fang was an even less desirable topic for them. What followed was the definition of an all-out quarrel. Weiss was saying some pretty exaggerated things about the White Fang, and Blake seemed to be defending them to some degree.

Before they could get at each other's throats, A crazy monkey faunas stowaway dude (try saying that ten times fast) who was running from cops after jumping off a ship darted right by us. The timing was pretty ironic, considering that Weiss had just claimed all Faunus to be thieves.

It was pretty hilarious to watch the cops miserably fail at catching him. He even flung a banana peel into the head detective's face. He ran right past us, and as he did, I'm pretty sure I caught him wink at me… but Blake was right next to me, so thankfully I can just assume it was directed at her. It was still weird to say the least.

"Well Weiss, you wanted to see the competition, and there it goes," Yang said as the guy ran off with cops tailing him.

"Quick, we have to observe him!" Weiss responded as she chased as well, all of us behind her.

 _I knew she just wanted to spy on them_.

When I turned the corner, I found Weiss on the ground next to a strange girl I have never seen before. At the same time, the stowaway jumped onto a roof and escaped.

"No! He got away," Weiss yelled, not even noticing that she was on top of some poor girl.

"Uh… Weiss?" Yang said. Weiss now noticed what was going on and got up in a panic.

"Salutations!" The girl called out.

"Um… hello," Ruby responded.

"Are you ok?" Yang asked her.

"I'm wonderful. Thank you for asking," the girl responded, still lying on the ground.

"Do you… wanna get up?"

"... Yes," she answered as she did a leap off the ground into a standing position.

We all instinctively backed up a few feet.

"My name is Penny, it's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hi Penny, I'm Ruby."

"My name's Zaine."

"I'm Weiss."

"Blake."

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" Yang got a slap in the side from Blake. "Oh, I'm Yang."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" _Oh… this is going to be fun_ , I thought sarcastically.

"You already said that," Weiss pointed out.

"So I did!" Penny responded, not even perturbed by Weiss's sass.

"Well, sorry for running into you," Weiss said as she and the rest of us started to walk away.

"Take care, friend!" Ruby added. She knew not what she had done…

"Well she was… weird," Yang pointed out after we turned the street corner.

"What did you call me?" _Wtf?! How did she…?_ It was Penny!

I was the last one to turn the corner, and I'm certain she hadn't moved an inch. I frantically started looking back and forth, confused, and it turned out Weiss was doing the same. We just looked at each other for a second and I could tell we were thinking the same thing: _I think I finally just found someone stranger and more annoying than you._

"Oh, I'm really sorry. I definitely didn't think you heard me," Yang responded.

"No, not you. YOU," She said to Ruby, leaning up really close to her.

Ruby backed up, a bit intimidated. "Me?" she croaked, "Uh-I-I don't know uh, what I-um-uh-"

"You called me friend! Am I really your friend?" Penny asked, getting even closer. Ruby was almost falling backwards from recoiling at this point.

"Um…" We all motioned for Ruby to say no, but… "yea, sure. Why not?" We all practically fell over after that.

"Haha, sensational! We can paint our nails and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!" _Rest in peace, Ruby._

"Ugh… is this what it was like when you met me?" Ruby asked, leaning over to Weiss.

"No, she looks far more coordinated," Weiss responded.

"How about when you met me?" I asked with a coy grin.

"Don't even get me started on that one," she responded, not too amused.

"So, what are you doing in Vale?" Yang asked.

"I'm here to fight in the tournament!" She responded with confidence.

"Wait, you're fighting in the tournament?" Weiss asked, not convinced. To be honest, I wasn't too convinced either.

Penny gave a salute as she responded, "I'm combat ready!"

"Forgive me, but you hardly look the part," she said with sass.

"Says the girl wearing a dress," Blake responded.

"It's a combat skirt."

"Yeea," Ruby said, pulling up next to Weiss and giving her a low-5.

"Wait… if you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey tailed… rapscallion?" Weiss asked, taking Penny by the shoulders.

I was standing next to Blake and for some reason I could tell she was annoyed. I wasn't quite too sure why yet, but I figured it had to do with their argument from before.

"The who?" Penny asked.

"The filthy faunas from the boat!" Weiss said as she pulled up a very crude drawing of him.

I looked over at Blake, then back at Weiss. _You should really cut that out, ice for brains…_ I thought, sensing the impeding explosion standing next to me.

"Why do you keep saying that?!" Blake snapped. I let out a sigh. _And there it goes…_

"Huh?" Weiss responded.

"Stop calling him a rapscallion! Stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person!" Yea that wink was definitely for Blake.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Would you like me to stop referring to the trash can as a trash can, or this lamp post as a lamp post, or this doofus as a doofus?" She pointed at me with the last one.

"Hey!" I interjected

"Stop it!" Blake responded.

"Stop what? He clearly broke the law," _She's not wrong…_ "Give him time, he'll probably join up with those other faunas in the White Fang." _Now that one was uncalled for._

"Ugh, you ignorant little brat!" Blake yelled as she started to storm off. Personally, I would have gone for something more like 'dumbass,' but that's just me.

"How dare you talk to me like that! I'm your teammate!"

"You are a judgmental little girl."

 _Don't you mean, little bitch?_ I thought. Who knows what would have happened if I had actually said that out loud... Yang, Ruby, and I sort of huddled up, somewhat worried and intimidated by this at the same time.

"Um… I think we should probably go," Yang said.

"Where are we going?" Penny asked, popping in right between Ruby and I. _Ugh… kill me now._ I could tell Ruby was thinking the same thing.

Surprisingly, their arguing went on for pretty much the rest of the day, to the point where I thought my head was going to explode. Heck, if I had activated my powers, that may have literally happened. Near the end, we all found out why Weiss hated the White Fang, and that Blake had been hiding something…

"Do you want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves! And murderers!" Weiss snapped at Blake.

"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" Blake yelled in response. _...We?!_

"...I…" Blake ran out of the room and made a run for it after that.

"Blake! Wait! Come back!" Ruby called out to her, but it was no use.

 _So, all this time, Blake was part of the White Fang? Was she the one in the trench coat?! No, no, no, that was obviously a dude, and with a much sturdier build. And Blake wouldn't do something that crazy or evil, ever. To be honest, I doubt she's still part of it. Maybe she just had a history with them…_

I didn't know the whole story yet, but my mind was racing, and so were those of the others. One thing I knew for sure was that being part of the White Fang meant she must be a Faunus. Finally realizing that made me regret a whole lot of things, and it explained a lot too.

All of a sudden a massive realization struck me. With all of my time fighting criminals in the past, I had several run-ins with the White Fang, I tried to forget a lot of the conflicts, but I remembered one event in particular... on a train in forever fall forest. A robbery was happening, but in the middle of it, two high ranking White Fang members got into a dispute, and one of them turned on the other. He was going to kill her but I stopped him. I didn't remember much about her except that she had escaped. C _ould it be… was that girl from the train Blake?_ I thought hard about it, wishing I'd been smarter. If only I had realized all of this sooner.

We all looked at each other, and didn't say much after that. We decided to let Blake think this through and figured she'd come back soon. However, on Sunday she still wasn't back, so we were all worried. Weiss was still convinced she could be some kind of criminal, a concept which I thought was BS, considering that I knew Blake. Regardless, we decided to spend Sunday looking for her around the city.

I was afraid of what would happen if we didn't find her soon… especially if the White Fang carried out their next move. That whole night I couldn't sleep… I kept having those same nightmares... I kept feeling that same pain and heat, and the negative energy that I was hit with before. I also kept seeing that man, Lukas. He knew something… he knew about me somehow. It couldn't just be intuition. I knew I had to get to the bottom of it, one way or another.

End of CH 11


	12. CH 12: Black Fire (Volume I Finale)

**It's finally here! This is your author speaking, and it's finally time for the Volume 1 Finale. This is my longest chapter yet, and I hope you enjoy it!**

 **I'm still working on Volume 2 so it will be a while until It's done, but don't worry, I've got a little bonus story to share with you in-between chapters.**

 **Thanks to everyone who has been reading this story of mine, especially my friend and fellow writer The Ultimate Impulse. Writing this volume has been a ton of fun, and I can't wait to share the rest with you!**  
 **Enjoy!**

CH 12: Black Fire

Blake was still gone on Sunday, so we ended up spending pretty much the entire day looking for her. Weiss kept saying we should ask the police, which I might say, was quite uncalled for. With all the bickering that was going on, the entire scene was reminiscent of a group of kids searching for a lost cat. Oh wait…

All of us except Weiss were hollering for her like idiots.

"Weiss, you're not helping," Ruby said to her, annoyed that she wasn't helping.

"Oh, you know who might be able to help? The police," She responded.

"uhg… Weiss." Ruby was not amused.

"It was just an idea!"

"Yea, a bad one."

"Even if we had a reason for it, these are the same police that couldn't catch a stowaway monkey or locate a guy who's literally on fire in the middle of the night," I noted.

Because of how bad the local police were at their job, before coming to Beacon, Al and I had basically been doing there job for them. So, it's safe to say that I didn't hold them in the highest regard.

"Besides Weiss, I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions," Yang added.

"I think when we hear it, you'll all realize that I was right," Weiss responded.

"And I think that we have absolutely no reason to try to get Blake arrested," I said, with as much snark as I could.

Weiss was about to say something even snarkier in response, but another voice stopped her.

"And I think Weiss's hair looks wonderful today!" We all jumped to see Penny following us.

"AHH! Penny, where did you come from?!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Hi guys, what are you up to?" Penny asked.

"Um…"

"We're looking for our friend Blake," Yang answered.

"Oh! You mean the faunas girl," Penny said.

"Wait, how did you know that?" Ruby asked.

"Uh, the cat ears," Penny responded, pointing to her head.

"What cat ears? She wears a… bow…" Yang responded.

I was supposed to have heightened senses, yet somehow I had been stupid enough not to notice that detail when Penny did. In my defense, I probably didn't pay too much attention to it. I'm not a human or a faunus, so I don't really have a preference—I find all of the discrimination and segregation to be stupid, personally.

"She does like tuna a lot" Ruby muttered.

"New plan! Anybody know a place where we can get some cat nip?" I asked. Everyone just looked at me. "What? The stuff works."

Ironically, Penny was the one to break the awkward silence, "So, where is she?"

"We don't know. She's been missing since Friday," Ruby responded.

Penny immediately gasped and clutched Ruby around the shoulders. "that's terrible!" Penny exclaimed, "Well don't you worry Ruby my friend. I won't rest until we find your teammate."

"Uh… that's really nice of you Penny, um, but we're, we're ok, really… right guys?"

Weiss and Yang were GONE. I was still pretty close by, peering down an ally.

"It sure is windy today," Penny stated.

I was just about to walk into the alley to check it out when I got a yank in the back of my collar.

"You're coming with me," Ruby said as she practically dragged me off.

"Yea, ok…"

"Please, do not… leave me alone with her. I may never escape," She whispered to me.

As we walked around looking, Penny would NOT STOP talking. It was getting to the point where even Ruby was exhausted by it. Most of it wasn't even useful conversation, but there was one thing she said that kind of struck me.

"So, Blake is your friend?" Penny asked.

"Ugh… yes Penny," Ruby responded.

"But, you're mad at her?"

"Yes, well, I'm not. Weiss is."

"Is she friends with Blake?"

"Well, that's kind of up in the air right now."

"But, why?"

"Ugh… well, you see, Blake might not be who we thought she was."

Penny gasped and stopped in her tracks.

"Is she a man?!" _Geez Penny, thanks for putting that image into my head,_ I thought sarcastically as I internally cringed.

"No, no, Penny, she's not… I don't know what she is. She didn't exactly talk to us before she decided to run off."

"I don't have a lot of friends, but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things."

That statement right there made me feel something in the pit of my stomach.

"… me too," Ruby said despondently. I caught her glance over at me for a second.

I think this was my first time experiencing what they call… guilt. Just a moment later, I got a text message from Al:

'Huge dust shipment Port A17 Big White Fang Heist'

 _I have a bad feeling about this…_ I thought. At that moment, I decided to slip away. _Sorry Ruby… I'll find a way to make it up to you._ Part of it was the danger of the heist, but the other was my guilt. I wasn't sure what to say…

"Hey, where did Zaine go?" Penny asked. Ruby looked around, then sighed.

"Zaine… what's happening to you?" Ruby said quietly.

I felt bad about ditching Ruby and Penny, but I had to do something ASAP. Blake had a history with the White Fang. Good or bad, I had a feeling she would be there. I couldn't tell Ruby and Penny how I knew this information without popping the lid on my phoenix thing. But because of me, there undoubtedly would be more security at the heist. Blake had no idea what she was getting herself into. I had to do something… but I wouldn't be strong enough on my own… I clutched my sword as I ran. _Is it too risky? I have no idea how much longer I can control it…_ I thought hard about it as I ran. I pulled out my shadow cloak while in an inconspicuous alley. I stared at it for a solid five minutes as recent memories flooded my mind…

* * *

As I started to slip away, the girl called out to me.

"Wait!"

Something compelled me to look back, and then, I got a good look at her face. She definitely looked incredibly familiar (and I'll admit, pretty cute too).

My voice activated before I could stop it "…Rose?" Of all the things for me to say…

"Huh, how do you know my name? Who are you?"

"I don't know…" I had to ward her off. "Don't get involved with someone like me! You'll only get burned."

I created a smokescreen and teleported away, despite hearing her voice behind me.

"Wait! I just wanted to say thank you…"

* * *

…a damn crow landed next to me and squawked… LOUDLY. It might have actually been a raven, but either way, I somehow lost my balance and… pain.

"..uh, hi… I'm Zaine. Nice to meet you," I said as I picked myself up.

"Uh, yea… thanks for dropping in. I'm Jaune," Jaune said awkwardly.

"Woah… did you just fall from the sky?" the girl exclaimed.

"Actually I think it was the roof…" Jaune tried to reason, but it was helpless.

"Can you fly or something? By the way I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose." _Now it all made sense… whoever I recognized might have been related to her_ , I thought upon my realization.

* * *

I sat up just in time to watch in awe as Ruby dragged the nevermore up the side of the cliff in a headlock and decapitated it at the top. After, we all saw Ruby standing at the top of that cliff… Déjà vu again… But, this time, I actually remembered something…

I remembered an old friend of mine… someone who was undoubtedly connected to Ruby. I remembered a promise I had made—a promise to keep her safe. Then, I remembered a grave I had found shortly after waking up, and I knew that it was hers.

"Summer..."

* * *

I put down my screwdriver and pulled grabbed by school bag.

"Alright, I've decided. I'm going to help you study."

"What? What makes you think I'd need your help?" Weiss responded, surprised.

"Alright, I guess I'll just design us a doorbell that makes farting sounds then," I said as I picked up my screwdriver.

"What? No! ugh, fine! We can study together, but just so you know, you're not helping me, alright? If anything, I'm the one helping you."

"O-k. Whatever you say."

* * *

"Zaine?"

I did my best Ozpin prediction, "Actually, it's your headmaster, the amazing genius . Ozpin III." There was a moment of deadly silence…

"*giggle* he does not sound like that…" _Wait-did I just make Blake laugh?! I think that's the first time I've even seen her laugh…_ "Ok, well, maybe a little bit... If you don't mind me asking, since when do you read in your spare time?"

"Well, I've got this great idea, but I'm not really smart enough to make it work. Reading's good for learning, right?"

"It's good for a lot of things. I just do it for fun."

"Yea, it's relaxing. If you don't mind me asking, what book are you reading right now?"

"Oh, it's... a story about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body." _Why does that sound familiar?_

"That sounds…. pretty interesting."

"I'm almost finished, if you'd like to read it next."

"Oh, yea, maybe I'll check it out. It's been awhile since I've read a book recommended by a friend." It may have been longer than even I know.

"Yea… by a friend…"

* * *

"Alright, I'll admit it. My bike can't do this," Yang said with a grin.

"Well, thinking about it, it is sort of dumb how much time I put into this thing… I just never really thought about showing her to anyone before…"

"Well, I think it was totally worth it, even if just for one night… and I bet _she_ agrees."

"Yea, you're right." _Is this all worth it?_ I thought, _Maybe… Maybe I could just stay as Zaine Aggryos..._

"Hey, Zaine."

"Yea?"

"I think it was really cool that we got to have you on our team. You know, not just to have an extra person. You're pretty awesome."

* * *

"So why haven't you gotten a new weapon yet? Besides not wanting another thing to carry," Ruby asked.

"I've been trying to build something, but, well… It's taking a while."

"Well, maybe all you need is a bit of inspiration. I know a place where we can look at all sorts of weapons. Ooo, wanna go right now? We could weapon browse together. As team leader, it's my duty to make sure that everyone on team Rwby is properly equipped for battle! Besides, it would be fun."

"Sure, I'll give it a shot. Lead the way, fearless leader!" I exclaimed with the bit of enthusiasm that I am capable of.

"Alright, this way!" she shot off into the city and I followed, barely able to keep up.

* * *

"It… worked!" I exclaimed as I fell over in a heap. "Thanks a ton, Ruby."

"Oh it was nothing," She responded with a smile.

"Hey, what about me?! You practically used me as a landing platform!" Weiss interjected, as she too sat up, having been sent to the ground by my landing.

"Oh, yea. Thanks, Weiss," I said from the floor.

"Looks like somebody's energy got **sapped** ," Yang said as she and Ruby helped me up off the ground.

"Un- **bee** -lievable," I said with a faint grin.

* * *

"Listen, it doesn't matter who the victim is, you should still apologize. If you respond to this with humility and forgiveness, whoever did it will stop, and you'll prove that the poster is a lie. If you respond with anger and malice, you'll only make it true, and that's exactly what they want."

"You-I-... I never really thought about that way."

"You might be cold, condescending, and rude at times…"

"Hey!"

"But you're not a bad person. In fact, you're one of the better ones I know. For once introduce some others to the real you, the one underneath the cold exterior."

"...Are you being serious?"

"Of course, why would I joke about something like this?"

"Well with you, it can be hard to tell."

"I'm being 100% honest here."

"...You have a lot more insight than I thought… I guess you're not a moron after all… you're still a doofus though. Regardless, thanks for the advice."

* * *

"So that was you! That's incredible! I knew you were a hero Zaine!"

"...Oh come one, it wasn't that big of a deal… that old guy was definitely exaggerating. It didn't have a billion legs."

"Who cares how many legs it had! You should be proud. But, why not say anything?"

"Well, I guess I just didn't want all the attention, you know. I just did what any good huntsman would have done. Saving people, and my good friend, should be its own reward."

"...You're so…" Ruby started, but trailed off.

* * *

"So, no crack at Weiss today?"

"...Uh, nope."

"I figured if anyone would be against letting her drag us out here, it'd be you." _Well, she's got that right,_ "What's going on? You're usually a lot more, you know, Zaine-ey."

"Unconventional and idiosyncratic?" I think she meant like myself, not actually 'zany,' but to be honest, it's not too far off.

"Uh... "

"Nevermind... I'm fine, really."

"Are you sure? You haven't been having weird dreams or anything?"

"Wait, how do you—"

"I might have… um, watched you while you were sleeping last night—not on purpose, that would be really creepy, just you know, I woke up and saw you… sweating and groaning and yea I should stop describing this right now."

"*Sigh* ever since—well, I just had you know… I just had a—um—unpleasant dream…" _What is wrong with me? I'm usually much better at talking. And what—what am I supposed to say now?_

"...Want to talk about it?"

"Um... Honestly, not really. They're just dreams; they can't hurt me."

"They can if you let them. Just know that if you ever feel alone, or scared, you've got a team—friends who will have your back. You don't always have to be the tough guy you know. It's ok to ask for help," she gave me a nudge and smiled as she said the last part.

"Yea, you're right…" _But doesn't that make me wrong?_

* * *

 _I know… I know what's truly important. The life of one of my friends is on the line. I have to use my power… It's the only way. I'm sure one more time won't kill me, but it might save Blake. I just hope, for everyone's sake, that I can control it… for their sake, I must—no—I_ _ **will**_ _control it…_

My mind set, I took a deep breath, and donned my shadow cloak.

As I arrived at the docks—the scene of the heist—I scanned the area, but I couldn't find anything. _Blake must be in stealth_ I thought, _but I know she's here. I can sense it._ I had to worry about concealing my own location, so I couldn't draw my sword yet to use my thermal vision. I just had to wait… for someone to make a move.

It wasn't long until they arrived, exactly as scheduled: the White Fang. Of course, Roman Torchwick was present himself. So Al and I were right. Torchwick and the White Fang are working together. This was the first time I'd seen them in the same place, but after dealing with both groups in similar heists, I suspected for a long time that they were working together.

"Nobody move!"

It was Blake! She had Torchwick at the throat with her blade. _What the heck is she doing?!_ I thought to myself.

"Brothers of the White Fang, why are you aiding this scum?"

It looked like she was trying to reason with them. Within seconds she was already surrounded. _It's not going to work…_

"Heh, oh kid, didn't you get the memo?" Roman asked.

"What are you talking about?" She responded.

"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together."

 _Told you it wouldn't work._

"Tell me what it is, or I'll put an end to your little operation."

"I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation," Roman stated coyly as a group of at least four more airships showed up.

 _Looks like I was right about the extra security as well…_

With that, Roman fired his cane into the ground, sending Blake reeling. He kept firing, but she dodged. Right as he started to pursue, a banana peel landed on his head, followed by a faunas I'd later find out was named Sun.

"Leave her alone." He said, landing on the ground next to Roman after using his face as a landing platform.

At that moment, tons of White Fang were deployed from the ship and came to Roman's aid. He needed help if he was going to fight them all, and a friend of my friend who's my friend's frenemy and the enemy of my enemy is… my… friend? Right? I over-complicated that. Regardless, it was time… _This is it. One more time… Then never again…_

Then, for the first time in months, I drew Shishanikko.

"You're not the brightest banana in the bunch, are you kid?" Roman stated coyly as the White Fang surrounded Sun.

"Yea, well I'm pretty bright," I said as I dropped in, creating a flash with my fire to blind a group of White Fang in front of me.

I followed up with a flurry of slashes and took them down.

At the same time, Sun was fighting an entire group of his own. He gave me a surprised look for a second, in between attacks. When Roman joined the fight, Blake came back to take him down. Sun and Blake handled him, while I dealt with the army.

I started taking out the ships with a fire fight. One of them aimed a bunch of missiles right at Blake as she was sent back from one of Roman's strikes. I don't think so I thought as I intercepted them with fire bolts. I saw Blake turn over to me and look me in the eye. The look she gave me… I would have thought she had recognized me if it weren't for the shadow cloak.

 _Wait… she does recognize me…_ The realization hit me like a brick. A long time ago, Blake and I had clashed before… when I was undercover to stop a train car robbery… _It really was her._ She was the White Fang member who turned on her partner and went rouge.

I was shocked that I hadn't realized this sooner, but I couldn't stop to think anymore, because the airship wasn't stopping its attacks. I jumped into the air to draw its attention and called upon my wings of flame. Propelling myself forward, I grabbed two missiles out of the air, then blinked behind the ship and let them go. They collided with the flight mechanism and the whole thing went down.

Meanwhile, I hadn't even noticed Ruby and Penny show up. Roman got a shot off on Ruby, and I guess that made Penny pretty mad, because she starting going HAM on the White Fang. She had these blades flying around her that looked like they were connected by strings. She even fired a huge laser to take out two of the remaining ships and pulled another one down like it was a kite.

A ship was firing missiles at Ruby, Sun and Blake, so I flew in front and spun my sword to deflect them. Several of the White Fang were firing out of the door in the side of the ship, so I let out a blast of fire to take them out. The ship caught on fire and started retreating. Even Roman was getting into a ship.

 _Dammit, Roman's about to get away again,_ I thought. I started to pursue, but then I felt something… a pain in my chest. I dropped out of the sky and landed on a roof.

Then, I heard a voice… **Zaine.** I knew that voice… **It's time to choose. Give into the rage. Accept your true power.**

I turned toward the roof next to me and saw him—the masked man. But… he didn't attack me. He was quaking. At first, I thought that he was afraid of something, but then… I realized what was really going on. He was laughing. He was laughing uncontrollably. Before I could do anything, I felt a pain throughout my entire body. I fell to my knees, only for the pain to stop. It was replaced by a feeling of strength and an unusual cold. I looked down to see what looked like the smoke from dry ice coming off of my body. I shook myself to try and break his influence. I looked back up to see that the masked man was gone. The cold effect also seemed to be gone… but I wasn't off the hook just yet. I stood up, in an effort to collect myself and get back into the action.

At that moment, a ship which was retreating flew between my roof and the roof where Ruby was firing and attacked both of us. Some of the shots caused her to fall off the roof, and one of them managed to hit me. Although it wasn't severe, it angered me more than it ever should have.

I was in a much more critical position than I realized, and that was the last push needed to set me off. The pain increased once more, and the cold returned, increasing to a burning level. For the first time, I lost control… I truly lost control.

I roared out as I rushed, full flight after it. I could have gone after Roman… I could have stopped him, but instead I was consumed by a desire for revenge and chased down that one ship.

I flew into it, stabbing it and injecting it with flames. Cold, evil fire, with a purple tinge to it, spewed out of the shattered windows and torn chassis. I beat the life out of the already totaled ship with fire bolts and flaming punches until the entire thing exploded into ash.

Ruby, Blake, Sun, Penny, and even the remaining White Fang members looked on in horror at what I did.

I started to go crazy... I can barely even remember half of what happened next… from what I know now, dark tinted fire was spewing out of me from everywhere. I started to attack everything in sight ruthlessly. But then, something slowed me down… another voice.

"You don't have to do this. There is a power greater than anger."

This was a much calmer voice… a familiar, comforting voice… yet, I couldn't figure out for the life of me who it was.

Someone was watching me. I had no idea who, but I might have destroyed the entire harbor if I hadn't been hit in the head right at that moment. I wasn't sure where it came from or what it was, but something hit me in the back of the head and sent me plummeting into the water below. It didn't pierce my aura shield enough to seriously wound me, but the shock made me go dark for a moment and knocked some sense into me… and also some memories…

As I plummeted into the ocean depths, my mind traveled to the past, as my body was about to receive the final punishment I believed it deserved…

…

"So Zaine, where are you going?"

"…what does it look like? I'm leaving."

"Yea, I get it, but what I'm wondering is where the hell you'll go."

"It doesn't matter… I just can't be around anymore, alright?"

"This is because of what happened yesterday, isn't it?"

"…"

"Listen, it happens to the best of us. You think I'm new to this sort of thing? It's no big deal. We all forgive you."

"That's not the point. The point is I'm too dangerous. If something like that happens with me again… if I lose control again… someone could get seriously hurt, or worse, killed."

"So you're just gonna give up that easily?"

"What do you mean?"

"Isn't it obvious. Having people around who you care about is perfect motivation to keep that stuff in check. If you go off alone, give into despair, you'll have already given up on controlling it. You'll make the same mistake that I did… Listen… We're here for a reason. We're aware of the danger, but we don't care, because we care about you. So, stick around and let us help you, ok?"

"Are you sure you can handle it?"

"Heh, forgotten who I am? All it takes is one blow to the back of the head and you'll snap out of it."

"… Fine then… I'll trust you. But if things get any worse…"

"They won't. I'll make sure of it."

…

The memories filled my mind as I drifted deeper into the water... But, at the last moment, as I was beginning to blackout, something pulled me up…

I awoke on the shore, coughing and choking. My sword was back in its sheath and my powers were sealed… somehow. I quickly rushed off before anyone could find me. I hid my cloak and did my best to dry off before returning to the scene.

 _That was close… I've got to do something to stop this. I can't use my powers anymore… someone could get hurt. I was lucky that none of my friends were in range. I could have easily hurt someone with that rampage. …Was he really there? And who saved me?_ I had so many questions, but they were all pointless because there was nobody to give me any answers.

As suspicious as I might have seemed, I couldn't just ditch my team. After hurriedly drying off and composing myself as best as I could, I managed to show up at about the same time as Weiss and Yang. Weiss and Blake talked things out and FINALLY resolved their argument. Looks like team Rwby was back together, but Penny had disappeared… I had a feeling I knew why.

While we were fighting, I activated my thermal vision several times to detect enemies, and I noticed that Penny didn't have a human heat signature. In fact, it was more akin to that of some sort of machine—like a robot. Given her quirks, it would make sense, especially considering that she was too damn powerful for a young girl. I'm just surprised that it didn't occur to me earlier, being a mechanical know-it-all of sorts.

I decided not to say anything for now, for several reasons. Mainly, after the whole Blake thing, I figured one identity crisis was enough for the day. Not only that… but I had my own crisis to worry about now. Maintaining a poker face, especially after what I had just been through, was nearly impossible. If everyone wasn't so distracted by what was going on with Blake, I wouldn't have gotten away with it at all.

Even just on the way back to Beacon that very night, things were… strange. My mind wouldn't stop racing. The nightmares I'd been having were almost starting to become daymares. It was getting harder and harder to hide them from the others… But, I knew now what I had to do.

I decided not to try and sleep that night. One more day and we were out for holiday break, giving me plenty of time to figure out what was going on without risking anything. I held it in as best as I could, but I'm not perfect… I was worried that Ruby was on to me, and for her sake I hoped she wouldn't try to get answers from me. I knew that if she tried, I'd probably cave and that would only put her in danger.

That night I sat on the roof, thinking about everything that had happened, and remembering what I had forgotten, not from amnesia, but from repression. After learning about Blake's involvement in the White Fang, everything made sense, and I remembered… I remembered the first time I met her. I put my hands over my forehead and sighed. The strain… the fear… the anger… _Who is the masked man? Am I going to—become him? No… I can't._

At that moment, I heard a window close. I lifted my face out of my hands and turned to see Ruby standing there, on the roof next to me.

"Zaine…" She spoke in a fearful tone, her silver eyes filled with worry, "We need to talk."

End of CH 12


	13. Intermission 1: The Phoenix From Shadows

**Hey, this is your Author speaking! I know it's been quite a while, but I've been working on a lot of stuff—don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the Phoenix and the Rose, not even close! In fact, Volume 2 will be released very soon!**

 **For now, I've got a special 'Intermission' for you. The intermissions will recount experiences from Zaine's past. Be aware that these may or may not be a specific order, so have fun trying to piece them together!**

 **Hopefully later on I can include a table of contents for you in case you haven't figured it out.**

 **Finally, I've also included the Volume 1 Soundtrack, which I compiled. As a disclaimer, I do not own any of this music, nor did I make any of it. I simply enjoy it and felt it fit the moment.**

 **I didn't include links for fear of getting in trouble, but I included the titles and artists so you can search the songs online. I hope you enjoy it, and maybe you can try reading a certain chapter again with the music playing. It really enhances the effect.**

 **Without further ado, here is the soundtrack, and Intermission 1. Hope you like it!**

 **THE PHOENIX AND THE ROSE VOLUME ONE SOUNDTRACK**

CH1 The Phoenix and the Rose: The Phoenix Meets the Rose (Zaine's Theme)  
"Same Old War" by Our Last Night

CH1 The Phoenix and the Rose: Zaine defeats fake Thor (Zaine's Alternate Theme)  
"War of Change" by Thousand Foot Krutch

CH3 Emerald Forest Fiasco: Team RWBY(z) and the Nevermore  
"Red Like Roses Part II Remix" by Jeff and Casey Williams, Remixed by Krollista

CH5 Forging Friendships Part II: Crimson Ember's Flight (Yang's Ride)  
"Alive" by Krewella

CH9 Inspiration Hits Like a Brick: Redneck Chase down  
"Hope Country Jail Battle Theme" by Far Cry 5 Unreleased OST

CH10 Humiliation: The Dark Phoenix (Theme)  
"Release the Panic [Recalibrated]" by Red

CH12 Black Fire: Phoenix Wrath Uncontrolled  
"Burn" by Three Days Grace

CH12 Black Fire: Volume 1 Credits  
"Not Alone" by Manafest

Intermission 1: The Phoenix from Shadows

I spent almost a year on this world, in this life, before I met Ruby on that pier and went to Beacon. In that time, a lot happened. Some of it was necessary, but much of it is what I regret more than anything. My memory of anything before my first awakening is either extremely hazy or completely gone. My memory of that year, however, is there… no matter how much I wish to forget it. Some of it is repressed enough that the only way it will return is if I relive certain moments through similar experiences.

When I was fighting the White Fang on the docks alongside Blake, I remembered something. It was the reason she had seemed so familiar when I first met her. It was also the reason I felt so uncomfortable at the mention of a masked man at Al's HQ. It wasn't the dark phoenix, it was the leader of the White Fang, Adam Taurus.

In that year, I began to carry out a crusade. It was a blind, and fruitless effort which resulted in more damage and harm than it prevented… but, a few good things did come from it. One of them was saving someone who'd be extremely important in my life going forward… not to mention extremely important for the future of remnant as a whole.

Back then, I worked for anyone I could, and I used my earnings in an attempt to erase any trace of evil… although it was an evil I barely understood, despite having pursued it for so long. To put it short, I woke up, I discovered an evil, and then, I decided to fight it. Somewhere along the way I met Al, and he decided to help me. There were several forces at play—dark and twisted forces, as well as others which were simply misguided. I took it upon myself to destroy them, before they destroyed the world. Like I said before, this world may not feel like home, but it's where I'm living now, and I think it's worth saving.

The phoenix is a creature primarily of light, so how... how could I destroy? Creation, destruction, knowledge, choice… where did I get them? How? Could it be that there is some humanity within me after all? These are all questions I've been asking myself since before I can remember, and I have yet to answer any of them… It's time I finally shared my past. I'll start with my first encounter with the White Fang… and, as I just realized, my first actual encounter with Blake. The entire time, I could have known if I wasn't so dense, and so intent on burying the darkness in my past...

Crimson leaves fluttered through the air like rose petals. Despite the gloomy sky and the looming daytime moon, which seemed to be crumbling in the sky, the Forever Fall forest was still beautiful. Even at the rate it was speeding by, the crimson blur of infinitely ripe cherry blossoms and autumn leaves was mesmerizing. However, I wasn't going to let pretty sights distract me from my mission. I felt the wind across my face as I passed through the forest at high speed. I wasn't running, I wasn't flying—I was on a train.

I clutched the side of the train car I was holding onto tighter, knowing that any second, this train could be attacked. In fact, I was almost sure it would be. A large amount of dust was being transported, and I had recently discovered that a faunas rights organization known as the White Fang, which had recently turned to violence was stealing a lot of dust and would likely be targeting it. I had been working to connect this organization to a string of other crimes across Vale as well as the rest of Remnant. Roman Torchwick… Tauberius Mauve… Arthur Watts… Doctor Merlot… Adam Taurus… 'Professor' Ozpin… All of these names had been floating around in my head for a while now, and I was working hard on trying to find all the connections. I couldn't help but feel like something horrible was brewing… something was coming together… some sort of horrible master plan. I was the only one who suspected it or had even close to enough power to try and stop it.

As I clutched the cold metal of the train car, I closed my eyes and listened carefully.

… … …

For a long time there was nothing but wind, the train, and the sound of leaves fluttering by.

… … …

*Clang* *Screeeech* _There!_

Someone had landed on the train. The attack had begun.

I climbed out from under the train car and silently entered the train car in front of me. I dialed a combination into the keypad, activating the train's defenses, which I had control of. I might not be a genius like Al, but where necessary, I can do a bit of hacking. I managed to infiltrate the mainframe of the train, which was also transporting Atlas combat androids. The Atlas official who was in charge of security seemed confident that the spider droid he designed would be able to handle any potential attacks, but I wasn't so sure. If you ask me, there's more empty space in their heads than in Vacuo's desert. If I was going to deal with the White Fang, I wanted any help I could get. I usually prefer to work alone, but robots are another story. They don't make you feel guilty when they get sliced apart just to make things easier for you.

Dozens of robots came to life, and I could already hear the sound of fighting. If the androids and the spider droid couldn't handle them, then it would be up to me. I exited the car and got on top of the train, moving along the cars from the top, until I reached the car that separated the dust from the passengers. It was a roofless car with cargo strapped onto it.

Clutching the hilt of Shishanikko, shadow cloak down, I sat in wait. I used my thermal vision to watch the heat signatures inside as they laid into one another. To my surprise, there were only two that didn't carry the obvious, lukewarm signature of soulless androids.

 _How the heck are just two faunas able to destroy that many droids so easily?!_ I wondered. Instead of being relieved that I only had two enemies, I was worried. If they were truly of as high a caliber as I expected, than I wasn't in for an easy fight. A ten versus one against grunts and thugs is easy. But this was a two versus one against seasoned fighters. That's nothing to sniff at, even for me. I might have a lot of powers, but overconfidence in this situation would be a weakness.

It wasn't long before two attackers and the spider droid blasted out of the train car. Turns out they had a bit more trouble with it than I expected. Despite being slightly less flimsy than the rest of Atlas's combat androids, its fate still wound up the same. One of the faunas, a fast ninja like fighter wielding a sword with a ribbon leading to a small scythe/gun that was attached distracted it, while the other, a bull faunas with red sword and a focused, power based attack style absorbed its energy and unleashed it in one fatal blow. The first was a girl, who unlike most of the White Fang I'd seen or heard of, wasn't wearing a mask. Instead of helping the droid, I took the moment as an opportunity to observe their fighting styles and begin formulating a plan.

 _Cheap hardware…_ I thought as I watched the spider droid become dust. As one of them approached; I threatened to draw my sword. I didn't know it at the time, but I was confronting Blake.

"You go no further," I said, sword in hand, flames surrounding me.

"Wait, you don't understand," she told me.

"Of course I do. But you've taken it too far."

"We're not going to hurt anybody!"

"What?" Surprisingly, the other faunas said the same word at the same time as me.

"Didn't we already talk about this?! Cut him down!" The other figure called out, another faunas in a white mask, who I know as Adam Taurus.

She said nothing, hesitating.

"He's in our way… he's in the way of everything! He'll kill you without a second thought."

I resented that statement. If I killed anyone, I always had second thoughts. She turned back and forth between both of us, and wearing an expression that seemed to say, 'I'm sorry.' As soon as I saw her face, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I drew my sword. As I drew it, flames burst out in front of me. Adam was sent reeling, but Blake disappeared. At the same time, my usually terrifying initial display of power was cut short by a blow to my back.

 _How the hell did she get behind me?!_ I thought as I rolled forward to lessen the blow. I created a wall of flame behind me to cover from her assault and stood. I saw Adam stand up and begin approaching me and I saw Blake nimbly jump over the fire. Despite her hesitation, she had made her choice. She was a hostile, so I shot a few words to fuel the flame.

"Nice trick, but you're not the only one who can be in two places at once."

I began to swing my sword up, appearing to be swinging at nothing, then as I slashed at the air, I blinked beside her and dealt a furious blow. Her aura blocked most of the damage, but the message was sent. At the same time, Adam responded by rushing me. I traded several blows with him, surprised by his speed and skill. However, with fire behind my strikes, and a raging heat emanating from me, I eventually managed to catch him flinching. I didn't have time to lay in a sword strike, so I kicked him in the stomach, my boot coated in flames, sending him nearly off his feet.

Before I could follow up, Blake took his place, swinging her ribbon scythe furiously in an attempt to break my guard. It was firing bullets as it spun. Despite using flames and fast strikes to parry most of her attacks the scythe and its bullets managed to clip me here and there. Blinking constantly to avoid it all wasn't worth it, because doing so would cost me too much of my aura. Instead, I kept fighting, thinking hard of a way to break through.

I wasn't going to let her fool me. Her strategy was to begin to whittle me down with the scythe and in the event that I noticed and tried to do something about the scythe, she would be able to take the distraction as an opportunity to inflict an even worse blow. In the meantime, she was using the unique ability she showed off before to avoid taking any damage herself. Every time I thought I had an opening, she'd disappear, and appear close by. At first I thought she might be using a close ranged teleport like me, but this was different. I felt the push back of colliding with something when I hit her afterimages. It was more like she was creating shadows that took hits for her. Keeping this in mind, I figured out a strategy of my own.

The next time I hit one of her images, I did so in a straightforward blow, giving me time to react to it disappearing and fire a delayed burst of flame from my sword. I had to guess where she'd end up so the first one missed. However, given the heat of battle she didn't notice, and I was able to try again. This time, I intentionally left myself open to the right, and fired the burst where I knew she'd need to be to take advantage of it. Sure enough, the blast hit head on, knocking her back.

Having lost her focus, the scythe slowed enough that I was able to grab it with my left hand. I pulled it hard, reeling her in and struck her fiercely with the blade that I wielded in my right. She was sent tumbling to the right edge of the train car, as Adam now approached again.

Luckily, I'd managed to fight them one at a time so far, avoiding the two versus one situation altogether. However, it wouldn't last, as Blake recovered faster than I expected.

Adam, who'd kept me from finishing her off was now trading blows with me again. I noticed his blade was now glowing, pulsing every time it collided with mine, which was being enveloped in flame. My mind flashed back to the spider droid and how he absorbed its power. However, before I could realize my mistake, I caught Blake in the corner of my eye.

I drew my secondary weapon, a smaller parrying blade and managed to catch her scythe with it, knocking it out of balance. With that out of the equation, I was barely able to keep both of them at bay, but it wouldn't last long. As I blocked one of Adams strikes, knocking him back enough that I'd normally have an opening, Gambol shroud hit my blade in a way which caused it to arc downward too far. The inflamed blade, still being pushed by Gambol shroud hit the top of the train and seared into it. As a result, both blades were embedded, and I lost my grip of mine as Blake let go of hers to tackle me. We rolled for a bit before I managed to kick her off of me. It was like being mauled by a freaking mad cat. Adam was right behind me, preparing for a fatal strike.

 _He's been charging this whole time, and what she just did was the distraction he needed for it,_ I quickly realized what was going on just in time. I blinked, but not before the beginning of the attack hit me. If I hadn't reacted as fast as I had, I'd be dead—ironically cut down by my own energy. But instead, I sustained a surface wound to the chest, and Adam kept moving forward, striking the front of the train car that contained the dust. The fire energy he'd absorbed from me released into the car, causing a chain reaction. The dust as well as the explosives he planted began to detonate, causing fire, lightning, stone, ice, and all other manners of elements to burst toward us.

"No!" Blake yelled with concern. "The passengers—we need to separate the cars!"

Adam was more concerned with himself, jumping to the side of the blast and off the side of the train—or so I thought.

Reacting quickly, I ran to the front of the train and blasted the bolt connecting the back of the train to the front. At the same time, I felt the blast reach me.

 _I can take it… I can take it! But—can she?_ Instead of blinking out of the blast or defending myself from it, I did something else. I can't explain why, but from everything I'd seen, despite her fighting me as a hostile, I knew Blake couldn't be evil. She wasn't like the other White Fang members—she wasn't anything like Adam. I wasn't going to let her die. I blinked in front of Blake, eating a huge amount of elemental debris, then grabbed her and blinked both of us into the forest. I could feel the pain as a small part of my life force was sacrificed to blink so much more than myself, but at the time, I didn't care.

The train completely went up in a massive cloud, however, the front half with the passengers managed to barely make it out of the cloud and keep moving, despite being quite shaken.

Having no aura, but being filled with pain, I stammered to my feet. I could feel the cut on my chest throbbing as my shirt began to become damp from the inside, but the adrenaline kept me from dwelling on it. Blake, who was beside me did the same, coughing, a few sparks and flames erupting as she did. We were both covered in dust and dirt. She looked over at me, almost as if asking 'why did you save me?'

I replied, "You're different, aren't you."

She nodded, and then responded, "More than you know."

Before we could say anymore, I noticed a beat up Adam come to his feet not so far away. Apparently he had endured the blast long enough to end up right by us. Blake stood beside me as if to send a message to Adam that she wasn't with him anymore.

"What are you doing?!" He yelled at her with anger.

"It's over Adam!"

"No! What happened to our future?! To equality—to getting what we deserve?!"

"My vision for a better future was destroyed a long time ago!"

"So you're giving up?!"

"It was destroyed by you Adam! By this terrorism! This isn't equality, it isn't deserved, it's just spiteful wrath that won't solve anything!"

"You… traitor!"

He started to make a move, but he wasn't in good shape, so he didn't get far, collapsing to the ground in pain. I could hear rustling grass, as White Fang reinforcements were on their way.

"We need to go," I said to Blake, letting her know.

She looked between me and Adam, and this time, she chose for real.

"Goodbye," she said to Adam, as she took one last look at him before running into the forest behind me.

We could hear the incoherent and rage filled cries of Adam in the distance as we fled the scene. As we reached the edge of the forest, night was falling and the city of Vale was before us. I could see the path to my hideout, but I wasn't about to lead some newly reformed terrorist there.

I stopped in my tracks, feeling the pain of my still present injuries, particularly in my chest, as the adrenaline began to wear off.

"You can't follow me any farther," I told her.

"…"

"You need to forge your own path."

As I spoke, I began to head toward the city of Vale, Blake staying behind. Before I got very far, she called out to me.

"What about you?"

I paused.

"Where does yours lead?"

I had to think on that a moment. I hadn't expected her to turn the phrase around on me like that. And come to think of it, I wasn't sure exactly where my path was going to lead.

"… Hopefully to a better tomorrow. Not just for me, but for everyone," I turned to face her and stressed the next part, "Human and faunas alike."

"Then I guess… we're headed to the same place," she said with a half-smile, as the sun set behind us.

"Well then… maybe I'll see you there," I said with a smile of my own…

It was one of the first smiles I remember… I'm not even sure why or how, but something about that moment just seemed beautiful. Somehow, I'm glad I finally remembered it.

After a couple more moments of eye contact, I turned again and headed away. I didn't check to see if I was being followed, but I guess I just knew that she got the hint. My crusade was never the same after that day. I wasn't fighting for vengeance on an ancient evil, but for a better tomorrow…

The change in mindset I had going forward may have been why Al joined me or why I ended up going to Beacon. Either way, it was too important to leave to the dust of time. Before I can seek a better future, I have to repair my past. I have to find all the vital moments just like this one which made me who I am. However, I also need to find out more about what literally made me… the history of my kind… There was only one place where I was going to find it, and I couldn't do it alone. I was done doing everything alone.

End of Intermission 1


End file.
